BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 15. A draw has been held at the editorial office of the "Azerbaijan" newspaper to determine the order of placement of presidential candidates' campaign materials on its pages, Trend reports.
Due to the forthcoming extraordinary presidential election in Azerbaijan on February 7, one of the most important stages of the electoral marathon has begun: the pre-election campaign period.
According to legislative standards, pre-election campaigning begins 23 days before election day and concludes 24 hours before voting begins.
A week following the commencement of the pre-election campaign period, a draw is held among registered candidates to determine the order of placement on the pages of campaigning materials issued by state printing organizations. The official state newspaper "Azerbaijan" has also provided free space for candidates' campaign materials.
During today's draw, attended by authorized representatives of registered candidates, the deputy editor-in-chief of the "Azerbaijan" newspaper and the head of the editorial group "Preparation for the Presidential Election," Ikhtiyar Huseynli made a speech.
He said that the "Azerbaijan" newspaper, being the official state publication, defined its activities for implementing propaganda and campaigning in connection with the presidential election in accordance with the Electoral Code of Azerbaijan and the Central Election Commission's Guide, "On procedure for conducting pre-election campaigning in the media in the presidential election of the Republic of Azerbaijan."
For the publication of registered presidential candidates' campaign materials, the newspaper allocated 14,000 square centimeters (out of a total of 42,000 square centimeters), meaning seven pages (out of a total of 21) during the week.
Huseynli added that campaign materials for the seven candidates will be published in the Sunday issues of the newspaper for three pre-election weeks.
"Campaign materials published in the newspaper should take one column in the A2 format of the newspaper for each candidate, i.e., 2,000 square centimeters. This is significantly more than we are obliged to allocate by law – 45 percent. That is, more than 10 percent of the total volume of weekly newspaper pages is allocated for campaign materials," he explained.
"Our decision has been perceived by the election headquarters of presidential candidates as support and has received high praise from them. Another proposal from us was considered by the election headquarters as the fairest and most objective campaign model," the official noted. "As we offer another mechanism at the propaganda-campaign stage of the presidential election. Each week, the order is determined in such a way that equal opportunities and conditions for campaigning are created for all candidates."
"Thus, fairness and equality in the publication order of advertising materials will be ensured, and the pages and positions of candidates' campaign materials will change every week," he pointed out.
Considering the dynamics of the electoral process, the "Azerbaijan" newspaper creates another opportunity for candidates to have free pre-election campaigning. Thus, meetings, speeches, and other propaganda activities of presidential candidates will be published in the newspaper free of charge, observing the principle of equality.
Then, with the participation of authorized representatives of candidates, a draw was held to determine the order of publication of free campaign materials that will be published in the newspaper. As a result of the draw, the order of publication was determined as follows:
1. Elshad Musayev
2. Fuad Aliyev
3. Fazil Mustafa
4. Zahid Oruj
5. Ilham Aliyev
6. Gudrat Hasanguliyev
7. Razi Nurullayev
After the draw, representatives of the presidential candidates – Ilham Aliyev's authorized representative Ahliman Taghiyev, Zahid Oruj's authorized representative Ilgar Karimov, Gudrat Hasanguliyev's authorized representative Yashar Kalantarli, Fazil Mustafa's authorized representative Leyla Musayeva, Razi Nurullayev's authorized representative Ehtiram Mehdiyev, the representative of Elshad Musayev's election headquarters Fikrat Jafarov, and the representative of Fuad Aliyev's election headquarters Khazar Teyyublu – shared their opinions, emphasizing that the draw was objective.
Issues of interest to authorized representatives were clarified during the event.
On December 7, 2023, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree calling for an extraordinary presidential election in the country on February 7, 2024.
On December 19, the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan (CEC) approved the candidacy of Ilham Aliyev, nominated by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), for participation in the extraordinary presidential election.
A total of 17 candidates have been registered to run in the extraordinary presidential election. Azerbaijan has seven registered presidential candidates.
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