Why are political parties ceasing their activities?

Baku/14.04.23/Turan: After the entry into force of the Law "On Political Parties", many political parties in Azerbaijan announced the termination of their activities. In March,  six political parties announced the termination of their activities: "Social Welfare" (SRP), "Alliance for Azerbaijan" (ANAP), "Tekamul", "Birlik", "Free Republicans" and "National Unity". In addition, there were reports in the media about the merger of several political parties. The parties themselves confirm this.

What is the reason? Does this correspond to the political goals of the Azerbaijani authorities?

 Anar Mammadli, the head of the Elections Monitoring  and Democracy Study  Center,  comments on these issues on the air of the program "Difficult Question".

According to him, the new Law "On Political Parties" is extremely reactionary and complicates the activities of parties. "After it was adopted, some parties stopped their activities, others began to merge with other parties. It seems that such a law was adopted in order to reduce the number of parties," he said.

According to the activist, this Law contains articles that seriously restrict the ability of citizens to realize their ideas, their ideas within the framework of political parties.

"These articles complicate the process of creating and establishing parties, create prerequisites for administrative interference in their activities and facilitate the possibility of their abolition. That is, in fact, in Azerbaijan, the institution of political parties, which is one of the most important institutions of citizens' self-expression, will experience great difficulties.

Political parties are created to participate in elections. The main task of the party is to come to power. To do this, they, putting forward their platform, their programs, enter into the struggle for votes. In Azerbaijan, this opportunity has been limited for many years. That is, it is impossible to come to power through elections," Mammadli explained.

He asks a rhetorical question – why create parties in a country where there are no elections? - and he answers himself:

"The fact is that in countries like Azerbaijan, are going through a transitional period, there is such a need. Because even if parties cannot come to power, they take part in the life of society in one form or another, contribute to the formation of worldviews, and allow citizens to vent emotions. They can summarize certain problems of people and express them in the form of a document. And even if they cannot come to power, they can influence the authorities to some extent. They serve as a link between society and the authorities. But this opportunity is also being lost in Azerbaijan."

According to Mammadli, opposition parties in Azerbaijan are deprived of the opportunity to influence society, to convey their opinion and their position to it.

"They are deprived of the opportunity to establish communication with society. They are physically deprived of the opportunity to participate in public life, since any such attempt is nipped in the bud.

In fact, there are serious problems with the existence of parties in Azerbaijan. Now they are trying to legalize all this," he  said.