Azerbaijan, Baku, 8 July / Trend corr E.Babayev/ Azerbaijan's opposition party Musavat has decided to complete discussions over upcoming presidential elections. "At today's meeting of party's administration we decided to put an end to discussions," head of Musavat's central executive administration Arif Hajili said to Trend on 7 July.
Azerbaijan will host the presidential elections on 15 October. In December, 2007, Musavat nominated party's chairman Isa Gambar. After Parliament approved of supplements and changes in the Election Code, Musavat commenced discussions for its participation in the elections.
On 2 June, the Parliament of Azerbaijan passed the Bill on Supplements and Changes into the Election Code. According to the Bill, the term of election campaign was shortened from four months to 75 days, with 28 of them envisaged for propaganda and remaining 47 for collection of signatures to get a candidate registered, checking the signatures by the Central Election Commission and other procedures. Furthermore, the number of signatures required for the registration of the presidential candidates has been decreased from 45,000 to 40,000. Presidential contenders are prohibited to conduct election campaign in the state-owned TV channels, radios and newspapers.
According to Hajili, party's meeting decided to fully complete the discussions within next 1-2 weeks and then to divulge a final decision. "When making a decision, views of regional branches will be taken into account," he said.
Opposition Musavat party was founded at the beginning of 1992. Its leader, Isa Gambar, was the speaker of Azerbaijani Parliament between 1992 and 1993. In 2003, he ran for presidency. The party is represented by 5 MPs in the Parliament.
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