Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Two presidential election candidates registered so far

3 September 2013 18:28 (UTC+04:00)
Two presidential election candidates registered so far

By Aynur Jafarova

The approval and registration of presidential candidates is underway in Azerbaijan, which will elect its next president on October 9.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) registered Chairman of the Umid Party Igbal Aghazade as a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections at its meeting on September 3. Thus, the number of officially registered candidates has reached two.

Earlier, the CEC registered Chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, President Ilham Aliyev as a nominee for the elections.

Speaking at the meeting CEC Secretary Arifa Mukhtarova said the CEC had compiled a relevant protocol upon reviewing Aghazade's documents submitted by authorized representatives of the Umid Party.

It was noted that 43,950 signatures from 102 electoral districts were collected in support of the candidacy of Aghazade. Some 3,798 signatures turned out to be invalid.

In his remarks chairman of the CEC Mazahir Panahov said that self-nominated Zahid Oruj has also submitted his signature list to the senior electoral body.

"The verification of these signatures will begin on September 4," he added.

Panahov noted that the CEC has received applications from over 2,500 observers, around 1,296 of whom will observe the elections across the country and 1,221 in constituencies.

He called on voters to check their names in the voter lists.

Furthermore, during the meeting the CEC approved the text, quantity and preparation rules of ballot papers for the presidential elections.

According to Azerbaijan's Electoral Code, the text, form, and quantity of the bulletins should be approved within 35 days and published 10 days before election day, Mukhtarova said.

Mukhtarova also said 5,149,255 ballot papers will be published in the printing house of the Milli Majlis (parliament) under the supervision of a CEC member.

This year candidates from various parties - both the ruling and opposition ones - as well as self-nominated persons have submitted documents to Azerbaijan's election body. To date, the number of approved nominees has reached 21.

The European Union Baku office said on September 3 that head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan Roland Kobia welcomed the decision of the CEC to approve the candidacy of the head of REAL movement Ilgar Mammadov for participation at the upcoming presidential elections to exercise his civil and political rights.

"As Mr Mammadov is still in pre-trial detention, I take this as a positive signal of the efforts of the Central Election Commission to provide for a fair and inclusive approval process," Kobia said.

Kobia said the procedure will lead to further measures putting candidates in an effective position to campaign and run. It should contribute to a democratic election process on the basis of international standards, he said.

In light of the elections, the number of international organizations that intend to observe the vote is on the increase as well. This year missions from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), GUAM, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other international organizations will observe the elections.

Recently the Azerbaijani government expressed its readiness to cooperate with the OSCE/ODIHR at the upcoming presidential elections.

Head of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission Tana de Zulueta told journalists that the OSCE observation mission will monitor the registration of candidates and campaigning.

"Observers will closely monitor the process of the registration of candidates, campaigning activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government agencies, enforcement of the electoral law and the media environment," de Zulueta said.

According to the program of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, the core team of the election observation mission consists of 13 international experts.

Around 310 professional observers from the OSCE/ODIHR will observe the presidential elections, 30 of whom are long-term and 280 short-term observers.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan Jonas Stewart said the U.S. government does not plan to send a special mission to Azerbaijan for the observation of the upcoming elections.

An observation group consisting of U.S embassy staff will conduct monitoring of the elections.

According to the Constitution, the president of Azerbaijan is elected for a five-year term through general, direct and equal elections, by free, private and secret voting.

Azerbaijani citizens who have the right of election, initiative groups of electors, political parties and blocs of political parties are entitled to nominating candidates.

Loading...
Latest See more