Media Review December 26, 2019

The attitude to the municipal elections held on December 23 and social problems are the topics of today's media.

The newspaper Azerbaijan called the December 23 municipal elections a model of democratic and transparent elections. In 118 districts, 41,462 candidates were registered. 1 million 627 thousand 64 voters, or 32.72%, took part in the vote.

The size of subsidies and subventions allocated for municipalities has increased, amounting to 6.2 million manats. Of these, 5 million manats are subsidies and 1.2 million manats are subventions. Last year, 5.5 million manats was allocated to municipalities.

The website Hurriyyet.org also writes about municipal elections. The author writes that 65.2 million manats was spent on “rigged elections”.

The economist Gubad Ibadoglu notes that this amount is 2.5 times more than the municipal budget itself. If these funds were not spent, then each newborn child could be given not 200, but 900 manats. According to the expert, the funds spent on municipal elections are absolutely pointless.

The website Bakipost.az writes about the protest of the residents of the Surakhani district of the capital because of sewage problems. The action took place on December 25th. The problem is the lack of a sewer line in the territory. Residents appealed to the appropriate authorities, but there was no reaction. The residents promised to block the street leading to the airport if they were not heard.

A representative of Azersu noted that the street, whose residents are protesting, is included in the project and a sewer line will be laid 14.5 km long. The author notes that residents pay 50 gapiks each month for non-existent sewers.