Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party has submitted the necessary documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to register the candidacy of President Ilham Aliyev for the upcoming presidential elections.

A decision was made at the fifth congress of the ruling party on June 7 to nominate the candidacy of its chairman Ilham Aliyev for the elections.

Deputy chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party Ali Ahmadov says that over ten years, Azerbaijan has undergone a stage of grand development under the leadership of President Aliyev.

"Over these years, the country's economy has increased many fold and major changes have taken place in other areas," Ahmadov said. "Azerbaijan has completely changed over ten years. When comparing 2003 and 2013, we witness the formation of a completely different Azerbaijan. This period also saw changes in people, in their lives, values of life, standard of living. Today, Azerbaijan is an active member of the international community with great prospects."

Ahmadov also said Azerbaijan is among the countries developing dynamically both economically and by other inidicators, and is considered one of the candidates to fill the ranks of developed countries in the near future.

According to him, the main points of the agenda of President Ilham Aliyev's further activity are to continue the development of Azerbaijan observed over the past ten years and achieve the objective of raising Azerbaijan to an even higher level of development.

"The majority of Azerbaijan's citizens unambiguously perceive the candidacy of Ilham Aliyev at the upcoming presidential election as the guarantor of the development of Azerbaijan in the coming years. Azerbaijan's development meets the personal interests of every citizen. Thus, unequivocal support and protection of Ilham Aliyev's candidacy by most of the citizens have made the hopes for a chance of other candidates in the election campaign unrealistic," Ahmadov said.

The New Azerbaijan Party deputy chairman considers the situation in Azerbaijan on the eve of the 2013 election campaign as quite promising.

According to him, the Azerbaijani society is "moving towards the elections in a good mood".

The presidential elections will be held in Azerbaijan on October 9.

According to the Electoral Code, the powers of the Azerbaijani President expire on the third day of the third week of October. This day falls on October 16. However as Qurban Holiday will be celebrated in Azerbaijan on October 16, which is a day-off in the country, the presidential elections will be held a week earlier, on October 9.

The process of nomination of candidates for the upcoming presidential elections has already begun.

Azerbaijani citizens who have the right of election, an initiative group of electors, political parties and blocs of political parties have the right to nominate candidates to stand in the elections.

The documents of the candidates are to be submitted to the CEC from August 20 to September 9.

A candidate who gets a signature list should return it within a week and after that the CEC will solve the issue regarding his/her official registration.

The official election campaign will begin 23 days before the election. It will take place from September 19 to October 8.