New bill on parties is reactionary, oppositionists say

Baku/08.09.22/Turan: The new draft law on political parties caused criticism among the country's opposition organizations. The document is reactionary and aimed at restricting political activity in the country, said deputy chairman of the Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan (PPFA) Seymur Hazi.

"First of all, it refers to the requirement for party founders to have lived in the country for the last 20 years. At the same time, for a Presidential candidate this qualification is only 10 years," Hazi told the Turan news agency.

The specified norm is designed to remove from active participation in political life those persons who for some time lived abroad in order to study, research work or business activity.

In addition,reactionary is the norm of mandatory submission of the list of party members to the state register, as it gives the opportunity to prosecute members of the opposition.

The norm about the inadmissibility of the activity of political parties without state registration is also restrictive, for it restricts the freedom of association.

The draft law actually aims to establish a one-party system in Azerbaijan on the model of China, said Seymur Hazi.

In turn, Natig Jafarli, member of the political committee of the "Republican Alternative Party", called the bill absolutely unacceptable. Thus, the activities of the parties are tied to rigid digital norms, as if we are talking about the regulation of some industrial enterprises.

The activities of parties should not be determined by numerical indices, including the number of their members, but by ideology and worldview approaches.   "Party registration should not be tied to their numerical composition. The weight of parties in society is determined by the number of votes won in elections," Jafarli told the Turan news agency.

In the U.S., for example, Democrats and Republicans do not have many official members, but they get 70-80 million votes each in elections.  In Britain, you can become a party member by making a donation of 55 pounds.

Jafarli doesn't think the bill will be enacted in this form after all. "The authorities have a tradition of initially setting a maximum bar of rigid requirements so that later, by repealing some of them, they can present themselves in a 'constructive' light," Jafarli said.

 Mustafa Hajibeyli, head of the "Musavat" Party press Service, also criticized the document, which aims to "put the parties under the control of the executive branch."

Also, he believes that the census for party establishment by individuals who have lived in the country for the past 20 years defies common sense.

The norm of submitting a list of all party members to the Ministry of Justice and regularly informing about new members is also reactionary. "In the realities of Azerbaijan, this can be used to persecute citizens," Hajibeyli told the Turan Agency.

Iqbal Aghazadeh, leader of the "Umid" Party, also critically assessed the document in a post on his facebook page.

He believes that the provision on inadmissibility of  parties that have not passed state registration is contrary to the Constitution. If a group of people united into a political party, perform political activities, you can not prosecute them for that. This is contrary to constitutional freedoms and freedom of association, said Aghazadeh.

Also wrong is the norm to deprive parties of registration if they failed to participate in elections twice in a row. "Parties have the right both to participate in elections and to boycott them. They must decide on their own which right to exercise. Participation in elections should not be regulated by administrative methods," said Aghazadeh.