Azerbaijan, Baku, July 28 /Trend, T.Hajiyev/
Currently the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan does not control the pre-election campaign, CEC press officer Azer Sariyev told Trend.
"The period for the election campaign has not come yet. The problems of the pre-election campaign relate only to the candidate himself. Regarding the issue that the candidates are not known yet, the CEC does not interfere in these matters," said Sariyev.
According to him, the interview with the CEC Secretary Natig Mammadov was not understood correctly.
"The media outlets have spread information that the CEC Secretary Natig Mammadov said that conducting agitation in social networks is illegal. In fact, we did not make such statements. The CEC has not such opinion. Simply Secretary said that during the election campaign, the agitation by a candidate is illegal if the campaign period has not started. But they related this to the current period. That is, the idea has been misunderstood," said Sariyev.
According to him, as the campaign has not yet begun, the CEC is not empowered to investigate these issues.
"The CEC may consider violations of the law only when the rules of campaigning are violated during the election campaign. But now it is not period for the election campaign. Therefore, the CEC can not restrict campaigning in social networks, and in the media, and we have not made such position," said Sariyev.