Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The OSCE Parliament Assembly will not send its observers to the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan, the OSCE PA website said.

The decision was made by the President of OSCE PA Ranko Krivokapic because the date for the elections in Azerbaijan coincides with the Assembly's Fall Meetings, due on October 13-15 in Budva, Montenegro.

According to Krivokapic, the OSCE PA pursues a long-standing policy focusing on the observation of parliamentary elections and monitors presidential polls only in exceptional cases.

The Central Election Commission said free airtime and space for publications will be allocated for registered presidential candidates as part of the pre-election campaign. Free air time will be allocated to the candidates on Public Television and Radio Broadcasting company, while space for publications will be provided in Azerbaijan, Khalq Gazeti, Respublika and Bakinskiy Rabochiy newspapers.

If other broadcasters and periodicals decide to allocate paid air time and space for publication within the pre-election campaign, they are required to notifty the CEC. Information about the conditions and payment is to be published no later than 35 days after the official announcement of the decision to schedule the elections.

CEC spokesman Azer Sariyev told Trend news agency that to date, six candidates have submitted the necessary documents to the CEC to stand in the upcoming presidential elections.

The candidates are the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) chairman, President Ilham Aliyev, Azadlig party leader Ahmed Oruj, Citizens and Development Party chairman Ali Aliyev, Liberal Democratic Party of Azerbaijan chairman Fuad Aliyev, Umid party chairman Iqbal Aghazade and lawyer Ilgar Mamedov (Altai).

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.

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.