Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 August / Trend corr. E.Babayev / Rauf Arifoglu, a member of the Azerbaijani opposition Musavat party and chief editor of Yeni Musavat newspaper, believes that a joint summit of parties, which refused to participate in the upcoming presidential elections, needs to hold.
"Musavat proposed to hold such a meeting several months ago. However, Musavat's proposal was not carried out then. The current processes show the necessity to hold such a summit immediately," Arifoglu told Trend .
Azerbaijan will host the presidential elections on 15 October. The Azadlig bloc, which unites three opposition parties - Popular Front, Citizen and Development and Liberal, have stated that the bloc would boycott the upcoming presidential elections. Musavat, Democratic, Citizen Solidarity, Great Establishment and Azadlig parties, as well as Eldar Namazov, head of the Public forum 'For Azerbaijan, refused from participation in the elections.
According to Arifoglu, unfortunately, the unity within opposition is only talking about. "Actually, the approach amongst parties has been observed since the decision not to participate in the elections had been made. No meetings were held between opposition leaders secretly or openly. It is quite an important event which causes alarm. Summit and consultations within the party should have been held immediately after Musavat made a final decision in August. Unfortunately, it is not happening and ice amongst opposition parties has not melt and no steps have been taken to hold cooperation," Arifoglu said.
Opposition's unification will not affect the course of presidential elections. "I do not believe that opposition's unification my affect the results of elections from the point of view that opposition may pressure on the process. Policy will be continued in Azerbaijan after the elections. Opposition has to unite to prevent collapse of opposition parties during the elections," Arifoglu stated.
Both the Popular Front Party and Musavat, which refused from participation in the elections, do not hail the idea to create a coalition.
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