Azerbaijan, Baku, November 12/ Trend , corr R. Novruzov/ The co-reporter of the Council of Europe on Azerbaijan Andreas Herkel says not only parties represented in the parliament but also those enjoying public support should be given preference while financing them through the public budget
Law on Political Parties of Azerbaijan has been adopted in 1992. No supplements and amendments have been made to this law so far. Changes to the Law calls for financing of political parties from the state budget.
The opposition offers government to finance all political parties with state registration. However, the government supports financing parties taking part in the parliamentary elections and winning great part of seats in the legislative body.
There are 52 political parties in Azerbaijan with state registration. At present, 12 parties have seats in the parliament.
"It would be more expedient to consider whether the parties enjoy support in society and to define the volume of financial support from his viewpoint," Andreas Herkel, co-reporter of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said to Trend by telephone from Tallinn.
Herkel said there are usually different situations on this issue in world practice. In terms of financing parties in the parliament, the theory should not indicate high threshold for election to legislative body. "I think the parties enjoying 3%-5% support should receive financial support as well. This can be a threshold to enter parliament if to do so that only parties with seats in the parliament will be financed. You should agree that it is very ridiculous when parties with 10% support do not receive financial support," Herkel said.
Safa Mirzayev, head of Executive Administration of the parliament said not all the parties can be financed by the state budget. Political parties achieving certain success in parliamentary election, in other words, those winning 4%-5% of votes within the country can receive financial support.
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