The Ministry of Justice says that "shortcomings" have been identified in the parties, and in the parties they talk about mistakes

The Ministry of Justice completed the inspection of party member lists submitted by political parties in Azerbaijan, as required by the new "Law on Political Parties," which came into effect on January 11 this year. The law raised the registration threshold for parties from 1,000 to 5,000 members, prompting approximately 60 state-registered parties to strive to meet the new requirement within 180 days.

During the process, around 30 parties decided to cease their activities. Four major parties, namely the REAL party, the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the Musavat Party, and the AG Party, faced initial setbacks as their appeals to the Ministry of Justice were met with negative responses due to discrepancies found in their submitted lists.

The Ministry of Justice has, however, deemed a considerable number of members valid for these parties: 483 for the REAL party, 2185 for the Musavat Party, 1818 for the PFPA, and 4435 for the AG Party. The Ministry has granted these parties a 30-day period to improve their lists.

The REAL party received its first negative response on July 17, and since then, it has been working to address inaccuracies in its submitted figures. Natig Jafarli, a member of the REAL party's political committee, told Radio Azadlig that the party is in the process of resolving issues, such as misidentified members, and aims to present a revised list of 5,118 members to the Ministry of Justice.

Similarly, the Musavat Party submitted a list of 5,212 members, with 504 of them being questioned by the Ministry. Arif Hajili, the head of the party, asserted that most of the questioned members had no technical flaws in their data. The party is currently conducting inspections and preparing updated lists for resubmission to the Ministry of Justice.

The PFPA deputy chairman, Seymur Hazi, confirmed that their organization department is working on the lists and acknowledged mistakes made by the Ministry of Justice. The party will resubmit the corrected lists for registration.

Tural Abbasli, Chairman of the AG Party, revealed that the Ministry registered 4,435 members from their initial list of 10,001. The remaining 3,414 members, not listed for technical reasons, and 1,424 members whose party affiliation requires verification, will be further investigated and provided to the Ministry of Justice promptly.

According to the new law, parties must have at least 5,000 members and submit a Register of their members to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry clarified that 31 parties voluntarily dissolved themselves during the post-law period, while 27 parties (including the ruling New Azerbaijan Party) submitted their registers.

It is worth noting that the new law faced criticism from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), citing concerns over the increased minimum number of party members, re-registration of already registered parties, and the prohibition of activities for unregistered parties, among other points. However, officials in Azerbaijan have rejected these criticisms.