Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 November / Trend corr. I.Alizade / Rauf Arifoglu, the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani opposition Yeni Musavat newspaper, is dissatisfied with measures, which have been taken to establish the opposition union after the presidential elections.
"Unfortunately, steps taken in this direction target to establish a limited union or to give such impression. No step is taken to form a real cooperation format, which would suit the current situation," Arifoglu told Trend on 4 November.
After the elections negotiations began to enlarge the opposition into a larger coalition, but it has not yet been formed because of mutual accusations.
According to the editor-in-chief, at present opposition has an opportunity to be unified. There is a need for a new union to assemble dissatisfied electorate in the country and it is necessary to do it, he said. However, opposition does not take any step to establish a real union.
"After serious mistakes of the authorities on results of the presidential elections, there appeared a serious situation for traditional opposition to remain in a political arena playing one of major roles. At least, traditional opposition gained moral victory after the presidential elections, possessing the real and major opposition. Therefore, traditional opposition has gained a chance to publicize their opportunities, role and position once again," Arifoglu said.
The opposition leaders can be a success if they manage to quickly and wisely use this situation, assemble dissatisfied electorate around themselves and choose tactics to work with people, Arifoglu said.
It is absurd for the opposition to prepare for the municipal and parliamentary elections without participating in the presidential elections, Arifoglu said. "Despite their mistake, they can participate in the municipal elections and assemble all forces. Opposition should establish joint groups and commissions by the end of 2008 to gain definite success in the parliamentary elections. Unless new groups are established, offers are put forward and ideological bases of activity are formed, people in the opposition will leave the camp by force of their different interests. Therefore, the leaders should think of a serious target to unite the opposition and set up activities taking into consideration all political directions. Otherwise, the situation will become much worse and either artificial or partially artificial opposition can appear in a political arena in 2010, as it was in the presidential elections."
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