"Musavat" Party decides to withdraw its candidates from elections

The refusal to participate in the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan was announced at a press conference by the leader of the party Arif Gadjily. Opposition party motivates this decision by the absence in the country of conditions for free elections.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 28, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed a resolution to schedule the next elections to the National Assembly for November 1.

"We pursued the objective to use the election campaign for providing objective information about the situation in the country, demonstrating that the country has forces resisting the authoritarian regime and fighting for democratic changes... Of our 73 candidates, only 24 were registered. Moreover, for the first time the authorities provided no time on air for campaigning before the elections," said Gadjily.

According to his story, the country has "no electoral atmosphere," because the topic is absent on the country's TV channels. "Azerbaijani voters are more aware about parliamentary elections in Turkey than in their own country," said Gadjily, noting that the "Musavat" Party decided to withdraw its 24 candidates from the elections.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.