Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 July / corr. Trend E.Babayev / Etibar Mammadov, the leader of the opposition Azerbaijani National Independence Party (ANIP), will not participate in the presidential elections. "My participation in the presidential elections is not expected," Mammadov, the leader of the ANIP, told Trend on 29 July.
The presidential elections will be held in Azerbaijan on 15 October. So far, the Musavat Party has nominated Isa Gambar, the Azerbaijani Democratic Party (ADP) - Sardar Jaliloglu and the Green Party - Mais Gulaliyev, the Azerbaijani Unified Popular Front Party - Gudrat Hasanguliyev, and Muasir Musavat - Hafiz Hajiyev. Eldar Namazov, the head of Social Forum of 'For Azerbaijan' will participate independently in the elections.
The ruling New Azerbaijan Party, intends to nominate Ilham Aliyev, its chairman and the current Azerbaijani President.
Azadlig bloc, uniting three oppositional parties (the Popular Front, the Civil Development and the Liberal party), decided to boycott the elections.
Mammadov did not exclude the possibility of the ANIP's participation in the elections with another candidate. "If the party nominates other candidate, I will support that candidate," Mammadov said. He did not tell the reason of his non-participation in the elections..
The party does not intend to boycott the coming presidential elections, Ali Orujov, the deputy chairman of the ANIP, told Trend . "We intend to participate in the elections and majority of the party's members is for the participation," Orujov said.
According to Mammadov, despite of the ANIP's dissatisfaction with the pre-election situation, the party will join the process to elect head of the state. "The party has several versions to participate in the elections. The first version covers nominating Mammadov, the leaeder of the ANIP. If it is impossible, we will nominate other candidate. If this also is not possible, we will support a candidate of another party. In any case, we are against boycotting the elections," Orujov said. A final decision will be announced soon after the ANIP's Political Council, he said.
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 Union.
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