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Azerbaijani opposition wants state budget to finance political parties

Politics Materials 14 January 2009 16:05 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 14 / Trend , A.Huseynbala/

The Azerbaijani governing party supports using several principles to finance political parties from the state budget.

"A key principle should the party's participation in elections," Deputy Executive Secretary of the New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) and member of parliament Siyavush Novruzov told Trend on Jan. 14. . "Most democratic countries prefer this principle."

The Justice Ministry has registered 52 political parties in Azerbaijan.

The Law on Political Parties was adopted in 1992. Amendments are currently planned to the law to finance parties from the state budget.

Opposition politicians propose that registered parties receive financing from the state budget. They hope to make a party's participation in the parliamentary elections the basis for financing.

Novruzov told Trend such a system would be unfair.

"There are parties in Azerbaijan which were registered in 1992, but have not participated in the elections," he said. "It will be unfair to treat these parties equally."

In most countries, political parties lose their registration if they do not function for over two years, he added.

The NAP was founded in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan (NAR) in 1992. Late President Heydar Aliyev was the first chairman of the NAP, which has been ruling the country for 16 years. The party's current chairman is President Ilham Aliyev.

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