Normal Campaigning or "Playing to One Goal?"

According to Azerbaijan's current Electoral Code, the right to free airtime for election campaigning is granted to parties that have registered candidates in more than 60 of the 125 electoral districts. In the current elections, only the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) meets this criterion.

This was also the case in the previous parliamentary elections when YAP announced it would waive this advantage to create "equal opportunities" for all political forces. As of now, YAP has not yet announced its decision on using free airtime.

Despite repeated attempts to contact various officials of the party, no answers have been received regarding this issue. The campaign officially begins today, August 9.

In general, how appropriate is it that there have been no changes to the legislation in this regard?

Bashir Suleymanli, head of the Civil Rights Institute, told Radio Azadliq that for years, the number 60 in the legislation has been considered too high:

"The issue is that, due to election fraud, only the ruling party nominates more candidates, and they are registered. As a result, they manipulate the election results in their favor. The same happened in 2015, and the ruling party refused free airtime. Otherwise, it would have seemed like 'playing to one goal,' where only ruling party members would speak on air, which would not be of any interest."

Suleymanli stated that the government continuously conducts propaganda on television. According to him, even outside election periods, most MPs frequently appear on TV:

"The other side, meaning opposition and independent voices, are not allowed on air. Secondly, if there are no debates on television, voters will not show interest in the elections. Thirdly, since paid airtime is expensive, independent and opposition candidates do not have access to TV. In such a situation, the election campaign will be dull. The election process itself is very dull, and parliamentary elections should not be like this. If elections to the Milli Majlis are held in 125 districts, there should be campaigns and debates in each district."

So far, it has not been possible to speak with the heads of television channels operating in the country about the criticisms. However, some of their representatives have previously stated that they do not agree with such criticisms.

Isa Gambar, the leader of the opposition Musavat Party, who is not running for deputy, said that they entered the 2020 elections with many candidates, considering the legislative barrier:

"But the government registered only 60 of the 88 candidates, preventing us from surpassing the number and thus avoiding the obligation to give Musavat Party free airtime. Knowing this reality, we did not aim to exceed 60 candidates in the current elections. We planned to participate with just over 30 candidates. However, so far, 25 of our candidates have been registered, and complaints have been filed with the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the registration of a few more. They will likely be reviewed in the coming days."

According to Gambar, the Musavat Party cannot afford to use paid airtime:

"At the same time, the current internet channels and social networks can adequately replace television channels under government control."

The REAL Party's Election Headquarters also states they have no intention of buying airtime. The party emphasizes that in the 24th year of the 21st century, broadcasting advertisements on television is not very relevant:

"Today, there are opportunities on internet channels and online platforms that can reach more people than television. Therefore, we plan to conduct our campaign through social networks and internet channels. We also lack the financial resources to purchase TV advertising time. It's too expensive for our budget."

However, Zaur Ibrahimli, a representative of the Election Monitoring Coalition for Civil Society, has a slightly different view. He initially stated that whether or not the ruling party uses free airtime is its legally defined right:

"Other parties can use paid airtime because they haven't nominated more than 60 candidates."

But Ibrahimli doesn't believe that the election campaign will be dull because of this. On the contrary, they expect a dynamic and modern campaign:

"Looking at the registered candidates, they are already sharing their posters on social media. The candidates are professionals in their fields, and many are well-versed in new communication technologies. From this perspective, we know they will bring innovations to the election tradition and apply modern election methods."

In his view, traditional campaigning methods will take a backseat in the current experience:

"People get their daily news more from social media; if they used to read and then listen, now they get information through video content. Social media provides the groundwork for this, so successful campaigning will depend on who creates successful video content. Also, people can succeed with video content that contains proposals focused on more specific issues."