Interview of a candidate for deputies caused the closure of the news portal

Baku/04.02.20/Turan: With the approach of the day of early parliamentary elections - February 9, the number of known facts of illegal pressure on candidates for deputies and interference in the campaign process of candidates who do not represent the ruling party is increasing.

Recently, a candidate for deputy, blogger Mehman Huseynov announced an attempt of Faraj Guliyev to bribe him. M. Huseynov calls on the authorities to deprive Guliyev of the opportunity to continue his election campaign. On the list of candidates for deputies from the 21st Nasimi constituency in front of the name of the representative of the opposition REAL party, Mehdiyev Farhad, is the name of his rival, independent candidate Mehdiyev Elsever. REAL believes that this was done intentionally, so that the voter who came to vote for Farhad Mehdiyev mistakenly ticked another Mehdiyev in the ballot.

The latest case from this series was brought to the media by a candidate for deputy from the 42nd Sumgayit second constituency, Elchin Mammad; because of his interview, the access to the news portal Yukselis.info was immediately terminated. Mammad claims that a hacker attack was committed on the site he runs.

The closure of the portal entrance was an integral part of blocking the propaganda of the company Elchin Mammad, who promises to carry out reforms in law enforcement if he wins. E. Mammad in an interview argued about legal nihilism, arbitrariness and passivity of the parliament. In his campaign, the candidate for parliament speaks of the need to eliminate corruption, establish an independent judiciary, ensure human rights, stop torture, develop civil society, resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and increase the importance of the Milli Majlis in these processes. At meetings with voters, Elchin Mammad proposes the adoption of new laws to address the complex of these problems, and urges voters to prevent election fraud.

“As you can see, those who like the subordinate role of the Milli Majlis, who do not need deputies who criticize the authorities, had to close access to the Yukselis.info website,” writes E. Mammad. He believes that just those officials gave the command to attack the site, and ordered the trolls to attack the candidate on social networks. E. Mammad called the incident a direct violation of election laws, and filed a complaint with the CEC.