Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 October / Trend corr. I.Alizade / According to results of opinion poll in the Azerbaijani south region, the Ruling New Azerbaijan Partyїs (NAP) candidate will gain victory in the upcoming presidential elections by majority of votes.
With respect to question `Whose election opportunity do you assess highly amongst presidential candidates?, a total of 407 people (82.2%), who took part in the opinion poll, named the current President Ilham Aliyev,ї Iltifat Rahimzade, the head of the South Regional Intellectuals Union Initiative Group, which conducted opinion poll, said at a news conference held in the Trend Company Media Centre on 10 October.
The presidential elections in Azerbaijan will be held on 15 October. Seven candidates will take part in the elections, including Ilham Aliyev, chairman of ruling New Azerbaijan Party; Igbal Agazade, chairman of opposition Umid (Hope) Party; Fazil Gazanfaroglu, chairman of Great Establishment Party; Gudrat Hasanguliyev, chairman of Unified Popular Front Party; Hafiz Hajiyev, chairman of Muasir Musavat Party; Fuad Aliyev, chairman of Liberal Democrat Party and independent candidate Gulamhuseyn Alibayli.
The South Regional Intellectuals Union Initiative Group was established several months ago and comprises seven people. Rahimzade, the head of the group, was the chairman of the right-wing Musavat Partyїs Lankaran Regional Organizations from 1993 to 2004. He resigned from the party in 2004 and joined the opposition right-wing Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. Rahimzade was head of the partyїs regional organization and resigned from the party in 2006.
A total of 500 respondents took part in the opinion poll and the survey was held in four south regions, including Lankaran, Astara, Masalli and Lerik, Rahimzade said.
їThe opinion poll covered 10-15 villages in each region. Majority of respondents was neutralist and their anonymity was preserved during the survey,ї he said.
According to Rahimzade, Igbal Agazade (30 people ї 6.060%), Gulamhuseyn Alibayli (26 people ї 5.25%) and Gudrat Hasanguliyev (10 people ї 1.62%) ranked three places after the ruling partyїs candidate. Eight people (1.62%) did not highly assess election opportunity of any presidential candidate.
In reply to question `Whom from presidential candidates do you want to see as the President?ї majority of respondents - 402 people (81.01%) named the current head of state, 34 people (6.87%) ї Agazade, 27 people (5.45%) ї Alibayli and 13 people (2.63%) Hasanguliyev.
їMajority of respondents ї 434 people (87.68%) condemned opposition parties boycotting the elections, 17 people supported this decision and 44 people (8.89%) could not answer this question,ї he said.
Some 428% of respondents (86.46%) said that if the opposition parties boycotting the presidential elections participated in the elections, they would not vote for any of them.
їThe opposition is weak, there is no unity inside opposition and they struggle against one-another. This fact resulted in loss of their authority. The society wanted opposition to take part in the elections,ї Rahimzade said.
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