Azerbaijan, Baku, 8 August / corr. Trend E.Babayev / The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) begins to collect required signatures for candidates' registration for the presidential post. "As known, the current President Ilham Aliyev's candidature was confirmed at a meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC) held on 7 August. After this, signature collecting campaign begins and nearly thousand people from the NAP have been chosen for this purpose. Training was held on this process to them," Siyavush Novruzov, the deputy executive secretary of the NAP, told Trend on 8 August.
So far, a total of 11 people appealed to the Central Elections Commission (CEC) for the participation in the presidnetial elections. The current President Ilham Aliyev, the chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, Mais Gulaliyev, the chairman of the Greens Party, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, the chairman of the Azerbaijani Unified Popular Front Party, Hafiz Hajiyev, the chairman of the Muasir Musavat party, Fuad Aliyev, the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Igbal Agazade, the chairman of the Umid Party, submitted their documents to the CEC. Moreover, Yashar Ahmadov (the unemployed), Alimukhtar Akbarov (a pensioner), Sevinj Guliyeva (a junior nurse of the Sumgayit Central Clinic Hospital), Vugar Seyidov ( a doctor), Gudrat Isagov (senior scientist of the Physics Institute the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences) submitted their documents to the CEC, as well.
The CEC has confirmed candidatures of six of them, including Ilham Aliyev, Igbal Agazade, Yashar Ahmadov, Vugar Seyidov, Alimukhtar Akbarov and Sevinj Guliyeva. Within ten days, candidates should collect 40,000 signatures of voters and submit them to the CEC.
According to Novruzov, the NAP will use new technologies during the elections. "Let me inform you that we have sent majority of our representatives to trainings to study experiences of different countries. They study elections technologies in Poland, the United States, Hungary, Turkey and other countries. Moreover, trainings were held for the NAP's activists at the US International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. In short, we held comprehensive preparations in connection with the elections. In other word, steps were taken for preparation of any staff potential and its use in the elections," he said.
The Umid Party is seriously prepared to the signature collecting campaign, Rafael Tagizade, the deputy chairman of the party told Trend on 8 August. "Special people were chosen from the regional and central elections headquarters of the party for this purpose. Although it is difficult to announce their exact number, definitely we can say that we can complete this campaign," Tagizade said.
The opposition Umid party was established in 1993. The Civil Solidarity Party (CSP) united with the Umid party in 2002. Igbal Agazade, the chairman of the CSP, was elected the chairman of the Umid party. At present Agazade is a MP of Milli Majlis (the Azerbaijani Parliament).
Heydar Aliyev, the chairman of the Supreme Assembly of Nakchivan, established the NAP in 1992. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is the current chairman of the ruling party, which has been in power for 15 years.
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