Political parties start nominating candidates to parliamentary election in Azerbaijan

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan's political parties have begun nominating candidates for the November 1 parliamentary election in accordance with a recent presidential decree concerning the date of the elections.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree officially setting the date of the elections to November 1, and the Central Election Commission adopted the schedule at a meeting on August 29.

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party has already determined 1,250 of its members for candidacy, while the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan disclosed a preliminary list of 15 candidates who will participate in the upcoming elections.

Also, authorized representatives of the New Azerbaijan Party, Civil Solidarity Party and the United National Front Party of Azerbaijan were registered by the CEC on August 31.

The president’s Aide for Public and Political Affairs and head of the Presidential Administration’s Public and Political Affairs department, Ali Hasanov, considers the pre-election situation stable.

"The civil initiatives of the society are active enough," he told local media, praising a dialogue existing among the socio-political institutions. "We will complete the election with such a condition. The Azerbaijani government's policy towards the political parties, non-governmental organizations, media outlets, as well as local and international organizations is constructive enough.”

Azerbaijan, a politically stable country in the South Caucasus, has already created all of the necessary conditions for holding transparent elections.

Meanwhile, CEC Chairman Mazahir Panahov did not rule out the possibility of unpleasant circumstances during the elections.

“Millions of people vote in the election and such a situation is a normal phenomenon,” he said. “However, the work of the members of the election commissions is to promptly and adequately respond to such an incident.”

The Azerbaijani government reaffirms its loyalty to democratic principles and adheres to the conditions required by international institutions interested in observing elections. The government takes necessary measures to ensure the transparency of elections both for international institutions and to the public.

The CEC is sending official invitations to international organizations to monitor the electoral processes.

"While inviting international organizations, we tell them that we will create all necessary conditions for them,” Panahov said. “We are creating all conditions for the official representatives for their participation in all electoral processes. The media representatives are also involved in the processes related to the verification of documents and signatures. The representatives of international organizations must notify about errors and violations. This is the constructive cooperation."

All election documents necessary for the registration of candidates should be submitted to the district election commissions from September 12 to October 2 until 18:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours).

The pre-election campaign will start on October 9 and will end on October 31 at 8:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours).

Registration for election monitoring should be submitted to the CEC on October 22. Local observers should submit their documents to the district election commission five days prior to voting.

The pre-election campaign begins 23 days before voting. This year, it will begin on October 9 and end on October 30. The pre-election agitation leaflets will be placed at polling stations until October 2.

The commission plans to install web cameras in more than 1,000 polling stations in the regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Some 296 webcams will be installed in the electoral districts in Baku.

Police will ensure safety during parliamentary elections and prevent all violations of the voting process in the framework of the law.

Earlier the EU reported that it welcomes Azerbaijan’s actions taken to conduct transparent elections, and expressed readiness to render support for the election process in Azerbaijan at a higher level.