Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 October / Trend corr. A.Huseynbala/ The Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) urged opposition parties to accept the outcome of the presidential election.
"In our experience, radicalism of the opposition is not conducive to democratization in Azerbaijan, on the contrary, it harms," chairman of DPA Sardar Jalaloglu said to Trend on 23 October.
The opposition cooperation centre, boycotting the election, is composed of block Azadlig (Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Liberal Party, Citizen and Development Party), Musavat party and the public forum For Azerbaijan. In early September, more than a month before the election day, these political organizations signed a joint declaration recognizing illegal the presidential election and the power to result from the election.
The right-wing ADP was founded by Sardar Jalaloglu in1991. The party had been occupying a radical position against the authorities by January 2007 when it took a new political course to dialogue with the authorities. Rasul Guliyev, the former chairman of the party, and his supporters separated from the party protesting against its new political course and founded their new Open Society Party.
According to Jalaloglu, the path chosen by the opposition is wrong. "We also understand that the election was conducted with some drawbacks. We would have participated in the election if they had been free and fair. But no one doubts about the victory of the ruling party's candidate," Jalaloglu.
Jalaloglu is sure the political activities of Opposition Cooperation Centre are undone because of its excessive radicalism. "400 observers from the Opposition Cooperation Centre are reported to have watched the election. But they did not jointly petition to the court for the violations and did not take any steps envisaged in the law. If there is no formal petition to the Central Elections Commission, so on what ground are political statements based?"
According to him, the opposition, as well as the ADP, must recognize the victory of Ilham Aliyev over his alternative candidates. "We must accept the presidency of Ilham Aliyev for the next five years and must propose him a new political path for the parliamentary elections of 2010 and presidential elections of 2013. Politics is not reciprocal statements of certain persons who are both in opposition and in power," said Jalaloglu.
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