The Law on Political Parties - fines for cooperation with parties in foreign countries...

Baku/18.08.23/Turan:  The Musavat and REAL parties submitted their revised membership lists to the Ministry of Justice, as the chairmen of the parties announced on their respective Facebook pages on August 17.

Arif Hajili, the leader of the Musavat party, posted on his Facebook page that they had prepared updated lists of their members, including both written and oral feedback from the ministry. He noted: "To be careful, we have added up to a thousand names of our party members to the list."

Meanwhile, new sanctions have been imposed in Azerbaijan for violations of the law "On Political Parties". On August 16, President Ilham Aliyev approved a decree on amendments to the "Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

According to these amendments, individuals will be fined from 700 to 1000 manats, officials will be fined from 1500 to 2000 manats, and legal entities will be fined from 6000 to 8000 manats for creating or participating in activities related to foreign political parties, subdivisions or organizations on the territory of Azerbaijan.

The amendments also provide that failure by a political party to notify the relevant executive authority of agreements with foreign political parties or membership in international associations of political parties entails fines in the amount of 500 to 700 manats for officials and 1,500 to 2,000 manats for legal entities.

Gulaga Aslanli, Deputy chairman of the Musavat party, expressed his point of view on these changes during the discussion of the "Difficult Question" program. Aslanli noted that the Musavat party has consistently stressed the uselessness of revising the law "On Political Parties" even during the discussion of the new draft law.

He clarified: "The authorities could not accept the fact that the law on political parties in force until then was adopted during the reign of Isa Gambar, which prompted them to take a course to change it. At the same time, the new law included a number of regressive provisions." Aslanli stressed that after the adoption of the law, the Speaker of the Parliament stated that the changes fully comply with the recommendations of the Venice Commission.

However, Aslanli said that shortly after that, the Venice Commission confirmed that they had not received the draft law "On political Parties" from Azerbaijan, had not considered it and had not provided any feedback, especially positive. Despite this, the law was ratified and signed by the head of state, despite the negative response of the Venice Commission.

Aslanli pointed out several shortcomings in the law, some of which border on the absurd. He noted that the names of individuals contained in the national information database were not reflected in the records of the Ministry of Justice, which raises questions about the accuracy of the register. In addition, he pointed out the inconsistency with the constitution of the country, since the Ministry of Justice demanded to provide the mobile phone numbers of party members.

The imposition of these sanctions and amendments to the law on political parties have sparked discussions about the government's approach to civil society and political participation in Azerbaijan.