Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.26
By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:
During the upcoming parliamentary election in Azerbaijan, the largest number of voters will vote for the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and the opposition will gather only a small number of votes, Russian president's personal envoy, member of the Civic Chamber, political analyst Sergei Markov told Trend Oct.26.
He said the ruling party will win because the people of Azerbaijan support the policy pursued by the country's President Ilham Aliyev.
"The people support high living standards, the political and social stability in the country," said Markov.
He said that reformations have been going on in Baku in recent years, the infrastructure is developing, a large number of sports facilities have been built and new buildings are under construction.
It is likely that discussions on the legitimacy of the results are likely to unfold following the election, according to the analyst.
The opposition, along with some European institutions, will begin to criticize the election results and try prove that it has allegedly not received enough opportunities for its campaign, Markov said, adding that the debates will not focus so much on the number of votes the parties will get, as on statements of the monitoring missions, various structures and so on.
He said that the focus will be on the statement of the PACE, which will most likely be critical, due to the general crisis, the pressure of the West on all post-Soviet states.
"Of course, the Western pressure on Azerbaijan is aimed at seizing the country's oil and gas resources, rather than democracy," Markov said. "Therefore, Azerbaijan must not be upset about the PACE's critical statement and the absence of the ODIHR/OSCE mission. The country must firmly conduct its policy and increase the number of allies. Among them the key allies are Russia and Turkey."
He said that it is necessary to create more credible missions, which would be engaged in the election observation.
"The CIS missions must be more comprehensive from a technological point of view, as for example, the OSCE / ODIHR missions," he said. "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) must also organize the observation mission. The evaluation of these organizations must differ from each other to avoid suspicion of political engagement."
The parliamentary election will be held in Azerbaijan November 1.
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