Political party leaders comment on toughening the law on political parties

Turan surveyed the leaders of several political parties on the upcoming changes to the law "On political parties" that will arrest their activists. In particular, the authorities intend to make punishment for "forced membership in the party," for which they will provide hard fines or 2 years imprisonment.

Commenting on the prepared changes, the leader of Musavat, Isa Gambar, recalled other steps, recently taken by the authorities, restricting  rights and freedoms. With regard to the above amendments, Gambar noted that the logic of such steps is not clear.

"Until now, there were no complaints of forced membership in a political party. The only party that forces people to join its ranks is the ruling party, New Azerbaijan. But even from there not a single complaint has come so far. Therefore, the need for such measures is not clear," Gambar said.

The Democratic Party Chairman, Sardar Jalaloglu, said that the government therefore, wants to fill the budget, as there is a reduction in oil revenues. That is, by increasing  fines, the government would supplement the budget.

On the other hand, these measures are aimed at limiting political freedoms and causing internal censorship on the issue of political activity, Jalaloglu said.

The Chairman of the Open Society Party, Sulhaddin Akbar, said the changes prepared the continuation of political pressure on the society. According to him, in practice, changes in the law will cause this: people under the influence of the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of National Security will be told to join the ranks of a party, and after a time, these people will claim that they were forced by this party to join it. This will give a legal basis to the authorities to put pressure on the party they have chosen as a target," said Sulhaddin Akbar. -05B-