Ruling party not excluding possible amendments to Azerbaijani constitution in case there is a need to elect working president Ilham Aliyev for the third term

The main task of the upcoming session is to declare officially about nomination of working President Ilham Aliyev as a candidate for President. The Yeni Azerbaijan does not doubt that the working president will remain on the position for the next five years.

"In line with the working legislation, a political party can officially nominate its candidate only after a start of election campaign", said executive secretary and deputy chairman of the ruling party Ali Ahmedov, speaking on the issues to be discussed alongside with the nomination of the candidate. He said the intention of the party to nominate Ilham Aliyev for presidency is known not only inside the country but also out of its bounds. However, he added that as  the session is a supreme body for adoption of especially important decisions, if the session participants have any proposals, the party is ready to discuss it, including some changes into the ruling structure of the party.

Ali Ahmedov said there is no need to introduce significant changes.

He noted that all previous sessions were held at Heydar Aliyev's palace, which is now impossible and the next session will be held in the other place, to be made public in some time before the forum start.

According to the representative of the ruling party, asked whether opposition parties will also be able to hold sessions in the same site, the ruling party has 450,000 activists and for conduction of a session they select participants from among almost a half million members of the party.

"I do not think that there is any party except for the Yeni Azerbaijan Party, which fulfills the task of the same importance. Thus, this moment should be taken into account in a search of a space for session conduction.

Ali Ahmedov said regarding forces, intending to boycott the elections, that there is no opposition political power, which is able to boycott the upcoming elections.

"All their statements about intentions to boycott elections mean that they just reject participation in the October elections, either because they have no support by the population or because of the absence of a real program or ideas, which they can introduce to the boters. Refusal of any political powers to participate in the October elections can not deprive  the elections of the competitive nature, as I suppose there will be a sufficient number of candidates for participation in the elections", said Hasanov, adding that the recent amendments, introduced to the Electoral Code, became just a ground for the political powers, which have no sufficient resources for participation in the elections and which were not planned to take part in the October elections.
The representative of the ruling party also voiced the party's intention to hold actions wherever the Baku mayor's office says them to.

Asked whether he agrees that Eldar Namazov is the only candidate, spoken of positively by the representatives of the ruling party, isolating him from the rest radically inspired opposition candidates and that he may take the second place in the elections following the candidate from the ruling party and whether the upcoming elections will become a campaign of a certain war of dirty laundry, he said the ruling party does not see the need to organize the war of dirty laundry in period of the election campaign and recommended other participants of the upcoming campaign not to turn the future elections into the war of dirty laundry. He also refused to predict on the results of the remaining participants of the forthcoming elections, considering that it can be interpreted otherwise.

"Anyway, I do not think someone will be able to oppose working President Ilham Aliyev. Difference in the results will be great". said he.

As for the OSCE recommendation to raise public trust to the election process, he said there are no grounds to say that population does not trust the elections, though there are external forces, attempting to create such an impression and noted the country's government undertake all steps for elections in Azerbaijan to comply with democratic standards.

Elaborating on the recent amendments to the Electoral Code, including reduction in the election campaign term, innovations of the agitation campaign and the elimination of deposit, he said the amendments have not changed the overall construction of elections.

"Elections in the country are held by the previous logics and on the same legislative basis. The recent amendments are more of a technical nature. For example, there were no rejections to register a candidate for presidency only due to mistakes in the signature lists. In this sense, the absence or presence of a deposit has no practical importance", said he and added regarding reduction in the election campaign terms that election campaign does not last for four months in any country of the world.

Asked whether the party intends to raise the issue of electing Ilham Aliyev for the third period, considering the fact that his being elected the president during October voting is undoubted, he said that results of elections are defined by several moments.

"In this connection, I want to say that the advantage of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party is its candidate -President Ilham Aliyev. The fact that our people have made their choice long before elections is also connected with Ilham Aliyev's factor. It is impossible to deprive people of the right to choose: this is a fundamental principle of democracy. Citizens must decide who will become a president of the country, where they live and work.

In this sense there are restrictions, contradicting to democracy: restriction of the presidency term. It means that if people elect a president every five year, introduction of the second restriction-opportunity to be elected a president for no more that two times-is senseless.

I think it is not democratic to restrict presidency with two terms, if people make their choice each year through democratic elections. It should be noted that these restrictions were subjected to changes in some countries on a certain historical stage of development.

Today our country is experiencing an unusual stage of rapid development. Which is more important for us, all citizens? To ensure the rapid development of the country or refer to formal democratic principles and state and a person can not be elected a president more than twice? This is more than a search of artificial alternative for Azerbaijan, while we do not have this alternative".

He said in conclusion that amendments to the Constitution for the third term of the working president to become possible can only be held by the will of the people, as the Constitution reflects the will of the people.

/Day.Az/