Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 July /corr. Trend E.Babayev / The oppositional of Azerbaijan National Independence Party (ANIP) appealed to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan, Mezahir Panahov. "We required in the appeal that the CEC Chairman must take measures with regards to CEC members, who make political statements regarding our party. Otherwise, we will bring this structure to court," ANIP Deputy Chairman Ali Orujov told Trend on 16 July.
On 7 June ANIP raised a question on non-description of names of some of its members in the lists of voters. Party stated that the lists do not contain names of more than 35 party members. But the CEC representatives accused the party of politicizing this question. Orujov said that the Head of the CEC Press Service, Azer Sariyev specifically said that ANIP do not have forces. "The CEC Representative demonstrated political position. In the appeal we expressed protest against this and required punishing those, who made political statements. The CEC is an independent organization. Task of the CEC is not to determine the force of any party. This means that CEC's opportunity to hold fair elections causes doubts," he added.
Head of the CEC Press Service told Trend on 16 July that ANIP politicized the question on non-description of names of a number of its members in the lists of voters. Party stated that as though not including names in the lists is linked with the fact that these people are members to ANIP. "After this, I stated that ANIP is not so strong party that we would take any steps on not naming its members in the lists of voters. In actuality, they politicized the question. Membership in the party is not considered in devising the list of voters. If anybody was not named in the list, he/she can appeal to the CEC through "hot line" and introduce his/her name into the list. There is no need to politicize this," Sariyev added.
The ANIP was established in 1992 and is the first officially registered party. Mammadov was a founder and chairman of this party until 2004. At present, Mammadov is the deputy chairman of the International Democratic Society.
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