Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 August / Trend corr. I.Alizade/ EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby believes Azerbaijani Government must pay attention to legislative issues, as well as to the issues regarding media and freedom of assembly, within preparation for presidential elections to take place in Azerbaijan on 15 October. "Presidential elections are very important in terms of further development of the relations between Azerbaijan and EU," Semneby said at a press conference on 1 August dedicated to the results of his visit to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan will host the presidential elections on 15 October. Bloc Azadlig uniting three opposition parties (Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, Citizen and Development Party, Liberal Party) intends to boycott the elections. The Citizen Solidarity, Communist and Great Establishment parties will not nominate their candidates for the elections. The Umid party has nominated its candidate Igbal Agazade, Muasir Musavat nominated Hafiz Hajiyev and the Liberal and Democratic Party nominated Fuad Aliyev.
Musavat and the Azerbaijan Democratic Party will announce their final decision regarding participation in the elections on 2 August. Governing New Azerbaijan Party will nominate country's current President Ilham Aliyev.
Semneby said the key purpose of his visit to Azerbaijan was to discuss elections-related issues. According to him, elections are of great importance for every country, especially for such countries with young democracy as Azerbaijan.
"At the meetings with Azerbaijani officials we discussed preparation for presidential elections, observation of the elections by international watchdogs, EU's role in the elections, freedom of assembly and the state of media," said Semneby.
He did not estimate the pre-election situation in the country. He noted that is international watchdogs to give an estimate to the elections after studying of the situation. "European Union would like the estimate to be positive," he said.
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