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Azerbaijani Opposition Party to Discuss Issue to Support Candidate of Authorities

Politics Materials 6 June 2008 18:16 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 June / Trend corr. E.Babayev / The leading oppostion Adalat party of Azerbaijan may support the candidature of the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev in the upcoming presidential elections. "This issue will be discussed in the meeting of the Supreme Assembly of the party in the end of June," a source from the party reported Trend .

The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held in October 2008.

The Azadlig bloc, that unites three opposition parties - Popular Front, Citizen and Development and Liberal, has stated that the bloc would boycott the upcoming presidential elections. Isa Gambar- leader of Musavat party, Sardar Jalaloglu-chairman of Democratic party and Mais Gulmammadov- Chairman of Green party of Azerbaijan, have already nominated their candidature to the presidential post. On 5 May, Eldar Namazov, Head of the Public forum 'For Azerbaijan, stated that he would also nominated his candidature to the presidential post. The candidature of Ilham Aliyev will be nominated from the ruling New Azerbaijan party.

According to the information, the idea to support the President Ilham Aliyev aroused after the situation that occurred around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. So, the President stated that a pressure is imposed on Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Adalat considers that opposition should unite and support the authorities in such a situation. The party supports the President's policy on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and sympathizes with the social program of the authorities. "We believe that the West will attempt to antagonize set of opposition parties against the authorities. We should support the authorities rather than to be a tool in the hands of the West," a source said.

Elkhan Shukurlu, Deputy Chairman of the Adalat party, told to Trend that he did not exclude that the issue regarding the support to the authority's candidate would be discussed in the Supreme Assembly of the party. "Some parties will not participate in the upcoming presidential elections and others will nominate their own candidates," Shukurlu said. "The final decision regarding the elections will be announced after the meeting in the Supreme Assembly. After the introduction of the draft on amendments and supplements into the Election Code, the number of people who wants to nominate their own candidate has decreased within the party," Shukurlu said.

Adalat Party was founded in 1993. In 1996, the party joined a different opposition party, the Democratic Party. However, in 2000, Adalat was re-established after separating from the Democratic Party. MP Ilyas Ismaylov has been the chairman of the party since 2001. Ismaylov was a candidate for the presidential post during the elections in 2003.

The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]

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