Azerbaijani Musavat Party May Change its Decision Regarding Participation in Elections

Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 June / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The Azerbaijani opposition Musavat party may change its decision regarding participation in the upcoming presidential elections. "The issue concerning participation in the upcoming elections was discussed in Musavat meeting on 2 June. A decision was made to study the issue in the different departments of the party," Arif Hajili, Head of the Central Executive Administration of Musavat, told Trend .

The draft on amendments and supplements into the Election Code of Azerbaijan was passed by the Parliament on 2 June. Under the current draft, the term of election campaign has been decreased from 120 days to 75 days, number of electorate signatures, which the candidates have to present to the Central Election Commission for registration, has been reduced from 45,000 to 40,000, prohibition has been put on paid and free agitation on TV, radio and newspaper- financed by the government, the election fund of presidential candidates has been increased from AZN 1mln to AZN 10mln and election centres in military units have been cancelled.

Hajili stated that the recent steps taken by the government encourage opposition to refuse from participation in the elections. The amendments and supplements show that the government does not have any interest to hold the democratic and normal election campaign. "It is evident that the authorities do not want to hold the democratic elections and therefore we will re-consider the issue on participation in the presidential elections," Hajili said.

The opposition Musavat party was founded in 1992. Isa Gambar, the present Chairman of the Party, was the Ex-Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Majlis) in 1992-1993 and the candidate nominated to the Presidential elections held in the country in 2003. Five MPs represents the Party in the Parliament of the Country.

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