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Taken Measures to Contribute to More Transparent and Democratic Elections in Azerbaijan: Department Head of Presidential Administration

Politics Materials 26 August 2008 16:55 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 26 August/ Trend , corr R. Novruzov/ The position of some opposition parties can not influence the activeness of voters in the upcoming presidential elections, said Elnur Aslanov, head of the Political Analysis and Dataware Department of Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan.

The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held on 15 October. Two opposition parties (Popular Front Party and Citizens and Development Party) and one movement (National Unity) united in Azadlig bloc and Classical Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan have decided to boycott elections. The Open Society Party, Musavat, Civil Solidarity, Democratic Party, Social-Democratic Party, National Independence Party and Azadlig bloc and Eldar Namazov, head of For Azerbaijan public forum will not nominate their candidates for the elections.

According to Aslanli, the opposition parties who take care of democracy should understand that all intentions to boycott elections or to call on voters to boycott elections contradict principles of democracy. "Such statements by some oppositionists completely contradict ideas of democracy and freedom of vote. Every citizen is free to determine its participation in the public and government's life," Aslanov said. At the same time, the voting is an important factor for democratization of society and the participation in elections will contribute to the stage-by-stage democratic development of the state, he said.

Azerbaijani voters will vote by their heart and reason understanding the achieved success and seeing what they have been offered in the recent years. "The action plan implemented by Azerbaijani president for the past five years obviously showed that Azerbaijan is developing step-by-step both in economic and political spheres. The society is being democratized and economic and financial opportunities of individuals are undergoing profound changes. The efficient statehood is being formed at the same time," head of Department said.

According to Aslanov, the development of election campaign and particularly the statement by Azerbaijani President about the need for securing maximum transparency in the elections once again shows that the authorities are striving for the conduct of open and competitive presidential elections in 2008. As government figures have repeatedly stated, all condition have been provided with this regard. "Measures that we carry out today will contribute to more transparent, democratic and open elections," he said.

As a whole, it is high time to put a stop to all cases when some opposition figures simply attempt to prolong their political life with the help of certain measures, he said. "This significantly overburdens the national political space given the fact that these people very rarely have their own opinion toward this or that issue. Therefore, today there is a need to form structural and constructive opposition, but not uncoordinated and irrational political unions," he added. According to Aslanov, the development of Azerbaijan necessitates forming of new political culture where only powers, capable of putting national interests higher than mercantile and advantage-seeking ones, will act as a opponent to the authorities.

Head of the department of presidential administration described the statements about inequality and without alternative as ungrounded and unreal. "These statements are disseminated by those who can not unite even tens of people around them. So, they only "legitimize" their refusal from taking part in the elections," Aslanov said.

According to Aslanov, if we have a look at the modern state of the political arena, we can see that traditional opposition is changing. "The refusal to take part in the elections artificially delays, but not excludes complete quit of these persons from the political scene. These persons demonstrated in recent years that they are not able to form an opposition brand. Besides, society usually needs updating and it first of all concerns opposition," he said.

The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]

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