Azernews.Az

The Azerbaijani parliament on Monday passed a law on changes and addenda to the country's Election Code.
Under the changes, the term of pre-election campaigning has been reduced from 120 to 75 days. Four weeks are earmarked for campaigns, while the remaining time - for other procedures such as nomination and registration of candidates, and the collection of signatures.
The new version of the Code stipulates that 40,000 signatures are required for the registration of candidates instead of the previous 45,000, and the system of placing deposits by election hopefuls is cancelled.
The amount of funds raised by presidential nominees has been increased 10 times to 10 million manats ($12 million).
The opposition's demand to form election commissions on equal terms was not approved.
The changes were adopted with 100 votes, with three lawmakers voting against the measure and one abstaining.
The new legislation did not reflect any proposals made by the Council of Europe Venice Commission, its representative said.
Expressing discontent with this, Sergey Kuznetsov said the amendments would be mulled at a plenary session of the CE body next week, which will be the basis for the organization's final feedback.
Commenting on the reduction of the duration of election campaigns, the political adviser for the head of the OSCE office in Baku, Alex Shakhtakhtinsky, warned that this would bring down the number of candidates running for the elections. "In my opinion, the longer the campaigns are, the better results could be achieved."
Shakhtakhtinsky went on to say that the Council of Europe Venice Commission and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights were developing joint feedback on Azerbaijan's election law changes.
He said that overall, improvements have been made in the Election Code and this will be indicated in the assessment. At the same time, it will contain some criticism of existing shortfalls.
"I agree with most of this criticism. Despite overall progress, I would not say that every amendment, by itself, represents an improvement," Shakhtakhtinsky said.
The ambassadors of OSCE member states met on Monday to discuss the changes introduced to the country's Election Code and the situation ahead of the October presidential elections. The meeting that took place at the organization's Baku office was a traditional gathering aiming to analyze current situation in the country, an OSCE representative has told Radio Liberty.
The Central Election Commission chairman Mazahir Panahov, who was also invited to the meeting, said the ambassadors and representatives of international organizations stated their views on the amendments made to election laws.
"The changes are normal and are in line with the standards of countries holding democratic elections," Panahov said.
As for criticism over the reduction of the duration of election campaigns, he said for comparison's sake: "This term is just two months, and at times, three weeks in countries setting democracy standards."
The CEC chairman added that such meetings promote the formation of a comprehensive picture about pre-election situation in the country.