Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

The opening ceremony of Independent Media Center “Election-2018” of the Central Election Commission (CEC) was held in Baku on March 7 in connection with the presidential election scheduled for April 11.

Chairman of Central Election Commission Mazahir Panahov, CEC members and representatives of its Secretariat attended the event.

Invitations have been sent to countries and international organizations to observe the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan, Panahov told reporters.

He noted that the Azerbaijani Parliament, the Foreign Ministry and the CEC sent invitations to organizations and parliaments of countries to observe the presidential election.

Panahov recalled that the OSCE ODIHR observation mission will begin to operate in Azerbaijan on March 8.

Candidates for the presidency of Azerbaijan should not conduct propaganda before the start of pre-election campaigning as part of the April 11 presidential election, he noted, saying that this is a violation of the law.

“It is possible that such actions are committed not by themselves, but by others who wish to discredit them. All parties must be careful. Citizens of Azerbaijan are able to correctly assess such moments. A candidate who resorts to such actions loses voters,” Panahov added.

Commenting on so-called National Council’s March 10 rally, he said that rallies for propaganda and campaigning as part of the upcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan should begin no earlier than March 19.

“Actions of political parties in other spheres are regulated by other legislation. Naturally, if someone is propagandizing on the streets in connection with the election, in connection with any candidate, then this is already a violation of requirements of the Electoral Code. Actions related to elections are a matter within the competence of CEC. The CEC does not comment on other issues, and is not authorized to do so,” the CEC chairman noted.

Panahov believes that political parties are quite experienced structures: “It is unlikely that someone will deliberately violate the requirements of the Electoral Code,”

Previously, the chairman of CEC told that any interested person, a presidential candidate or a candidate's plenipotentiary representative can hold a press conference in the media center and take advantage of other opportunities created there.

The CEC chairman urged the media to cover in detail the processes connected with the elections.

Earlier, Etibar Guliyev, Head of the CEC working group, informed that seven candidates submitted signature lists and other necessary documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) for registration.

He said that all candidates must submit signature lists and other documents to the CEC for registration before 6 pm on March 12.

Noting that the necessary documents for registration of the candidate are considered by the working group, Guliyev said that this process is underway.

“The Central Election Commission has announced the process of verifying the signatures open. That is, anyone can get acquainted with the verification process of signatures,” he said.

It was noted that previously, representatives of political parties, plenipotentiary representatives of the candidates had already observed the process.

In Azerbaijan, 5,347,803 ballots will be printed in connection with the upcoming presidential election. This was announced at a meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC) on March 6. Reportedly, the ballots should be printed 35 days before the voting.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan, the largest South Caucasus state on the Caspian shore, is to be held on April 11, according to an order signed on February 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev. Pre-election campaign in Azerbaijan will begin on March 19 and end on April 10 at 08:00.

Earlier, Ilham Aliyev was registered as the first candidate for the presidential election. In this regard, Panahov presented a presidential candidate certificate to Ilham Aliyev on March 5.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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