Azerbaijani CEC clarifies its attitude towards extension of free airtime for candidates

"No country in the world discusses this issue, because nowhere else the candidates are provided with free airtime. One must create a fund and use this fund to achieve objectives to get certain powers," CEC Secretary Natig Mammadov said.

At the round-table discussion organized by the OSCE Baku Office on coverage of elections by media the opposition parties expressed discontent with little airtime given for broadcast of the pre-election debate.

According to Mammadov, the provision of free airtime is practiced only in Azerbaijan.

"Perhaps, someone does not want to use other means of propaganda to implement his electoral program and wait to get free air time. In addition, if the political parties struggle in normal period and it does not relate specifically to the electoral period, the parties need to operate not only during election for the formation of the electorate," Mammadov said.

Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are scheduled for November 7, 2010. The elections are held by the majority system in 125 constituencies. 


/Trend/