REAL: Azerbaijani Authorities Fear New Generation of Politicians

The leader of the civil movement "Republican alternative » (REAL) Ilgar Mamedov has filed an appeal against the CEC refusal to register him as a presidential candidate in the presidential election on October 9. The complaint on behalf of the arrested man was presented to CEC by his lawyer Khalid Baghirov on Sept. 14.

 As stated at the September 14 press conference in the office of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety ( IRFS ) the executive secretary of REAL Natig Jaafarli, the CEC decision is illegal.

Thus, in the official decision of the CEC , it is noted that out of the 41,247 signatures submitted in support of the leader of REAL 893 signatures were invalidated because of the problems associated with identity cards, in particular their being overdue.

The same document goes on to note that another 4,089 signatures were "allegedly rigged ."

"Thus , the CEC , unequivocally declared invalid only 893 signatures. Therefore it is absurd to deprive the candidate of participation in the elections only on the basis of the " assumptions " about the rigged character of about 4 thousand signatures. Excluding the 893 signatures clearly invalid , the number of valid signatures is still more than 40 thousand, " continued Jaafarli.

 In his view, no tolerance to Ilgar Mamedov's participation in the elections is contrary to the strategy of the authorities. "For in the case of participation of Ilgar Mamedov the voter interest in the election will increase and the citizens will intensify the atmosphere of competition. On the other hand , registration of Mamedov would mean his release from prison , which led to a new wave of protest movement , and ultimately could lead to a victory for the democratic forces," believes Jaafarli .

In turn , the head of the Majlis of REAL Erkin Ghadirli noted that authorities created obstacles to Mamedov still at the stage of his candidacy.

" So we had to collect signatures in less than 10 days. And this campaign has shown the growing popularity of REAL. Our calls via Facebook were responded by thousands of people , mostly youths. Hundreds of people actively collected signatures in Baku and regions. The authorities did not believe that we would be able to collect 40,000 signatures, and this was the only reason why they approved Mamedov as candidate," said Ghadirli.

He explained no admission of Mamedov to participate in the elections by the unwillingness of the authorities to inform the general public about the appearance of a new generation of politicians .

"Registration of Mamedov would mean giving him broadcast on television, bringing the population to new ideas and proposals to address the problems of the country . It's frightening the power. They want everyone in the country to remain under the old power and the traditional opposition so that the population was not interested in politics. No admittance to the polls for Mamedov and the nomination of new charges against youth activists from Nida eloquently shows who is the target of repressive government policies and who they see competitors for themselves in the future," said Ghadirli .

Member of the Board of REAL Zohrab Ismail said that the campaign showed a large number of supporters of the movement in the country .

Thus, in the city of Ganja in favor of Mamedov more than 1,000 signatures were raised, in Geychay there were 500, and hundreds of signatures were collected in Khachmaz and other parts of the country.

Such support convinced the movement's leaders to accelerate the transformation of REAL into a political party.

Finally, at the press conference it was announced that they would use all legal means to achieve participation of Mamedov in the elections.

"However , if the appeal is not met and the Supreme Court does not annul the decision of CEC, we will call upon our supporters to vote for another opposition candidate - Jameel Hasanli," said Jaafarli .