National Council of Democratic Forces Decides to Boycott Early Presidential Elections

Baku / 06.02.18 / Turan: The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) of Azerbaijan decided to boycott the extraordinary presidential elections scheduled for April 11. The NCDF intends to launch protests against this election campaign.

The NCDF Coordination Center discussed the situation in connection with the extraordinary presidential elections. Jamil Hasanli, chairman of the NCDF, wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"The next presidential election was scheduled for October 17. This was announced only three weeks ago. This day (October 17) was even declared not a working day. And now, suddenly, early elections are scheduled, just five days before the start of the election campaign. During this time, no extraordinary events in the country that caused the holding of early elections took place. Today at the meeting of the NCDF Coordination Center we discussed the situation around the early elections and their possible political, legal, social and moral consequences. We regard the appointment of extraordinary elections on April 11 as a mockery of the election institution, as the destruction of its remains," Hasanli said.

At the same time, he recalled that the OSCE / ODIHR monitoring mission in the previous presidential election in 2013 concluded that 58 percent of the polling stations where its observers were present had recorded falsifications.

"Taking into account this and the hasty appointment of the early elections, we are sure that on April 11, once again, a farce will be played. We believe that these elections will be another step in the way of depriving the Azerbaijani people of the opportunity to form their power through elections, which was reflected more than once in the reports and conclusions of international organizations," Hasanli continued.

"The NCDF decided to boycott this farce called "presidential elections," Hasanli wrote. "We will turn to the people to resist this game started by the authorities, using all legal and political means," the NCDF leader said. -06D--.