Why do not they register the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Party? Is it discrimination?

Baku/26.08.22/Turan: The Ministry of Justice for the third time returned the founding documents of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Party (ADWP) submitted for registration.

The party, chaired by Gubad Ibadoglu, was created on the basis of an NGO that has been operating since 2015 - the Movement for Democracy and Prosperity. The constituent congress of the party was held on October 17, 2021, and on November 11, documents for registration were submitted to the Ministry of Justice.

On March 1, 2022, the Ministry of Justice refused registration, and returned the documents. The official response said that the documents had minor technical flaws.

On March 16, the party submitted updated documents to the Ministry of Justice. On June 21, the Ministry of Justice again returned the documents, citing the absence of signatures of responsible persons.

On July 5, the party appealed to the Ministry of Justice for the third time. The ministry's official response dated August 17 stated that the organization's charter did not specify the procedure for nominating candidates for parliamentary, presidential and municipal elections.

On August 24, activists of the party held a protest in front of the Ministry of Justice demanding that the party be registered.

Gubad Ibadoglu, chairman of the ADWP, answers questions about the refusal to register the party in the “Difficult Question” program.

The party twice applied for registration and after 3-4 months was refused under the pretext of shortcomings in the constituent documents, Ibadoglu said.  “This is the third time we have applied unsuccessfully to the Ministry of Justice. We are not denied registration, they return the founding documents under  different  pretexts.  Every time they write to us about some flaws there. First, they wrote about the absence of signatures of responsible persons in the constituent documents, then they indicated that the time of office of the responsible bodies of the party is not exactly indicated.

This time, the Ministry of Justice justified the refusal by the absence  in the party’s Charter  the  rules for nominating candidates for presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections, although it clearly states that the nomination of candidates for the presidency and deputies of the Parliament is the  power of the Supreme Majlis. The lists of candidates for municipal councils are approved by regional organizations,” Gubad Ibadoglu said.

The Ministry of Justice has no formal reasons to refuse  registration of the ADWP, Ibadoglu stated.

“According to the law, refusal is possible if the party calls for terror, for discrimination on racial, ethnic, confessional grounds. But  there is not and cannot be anything like this in our activity. Our goal is to achieve a peaceful, democratic reform of the country to achieve the welfare of the country,” he says.

He is deeply convinced that the presidential administration does not give permission for the registration of a party whose activities are not in the interests of the country's leadership. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice returns documents to us under far-fetched pretexts, thereby violating the law.

“The Article 8.3 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On State Registration and State Register of Legal Entities”  read:

“In case of detection of deficiencies in the documents that are not the reason for the refusal of state registration of structures wishing to obtain the status of a legal entity, as well as representative offices or branches of a foreign legal entity, the relevant executive authority of the Republic of Azerbaijan returns these documents to the applicant and sets an additional period of 20 days to eliminate these shortcomings. All shortcomings that are not the reason for the refusal must be identified simultaneously and presented to the applicant for elimination,” Gubad Ibadoglu emphasized.

The party intends to sue the Ministry of Justice and bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights, Ibadoglu stated. –0—