Fazil Gazanfaroglu, the Azerbaijani presidential candidate and the chairman of the Great Establishment Party (GEP), will hold a meeting with voters in Ganja (365km west of Baku) on 28 September under the propaganda campaign, Ruslan Gardashov, the head of the Ganja City Administration’s Department for Public Organizations and Political Parties, told Trend News on 26 September.
The place for Gazanfaroglu’s meeting in Ganja has been determined, Gardashov said. The presidential candidate will hold a meeting at the closed area in the Fuzuli Park of Ganja. Security measures have been done for his campaigning in the city.
Generally, 80 places, including 42 indoor and 38 outdoor places, have been authorized for candidates to hold meetings in Ganja, he said. /Trend/

The Azerbaijani Central Elections Commission (CEC) registered lawyers of two presidential candidates at a meeting on 26 September.
A total of 40 lawyers of Hafiz Hajiyev, the presidential candidate of the opposition Muasir Musavat Party and 30 lawyers of Fuad Aliyev, the presidential candidate of the Azerbaijani Liberal Democratic Party, were registered.
So far, the elections commissions have registered 25,023 observers to follow the presidential elections and 15,087 people from political parties, 7,726 representatives of Non-Government Organizations, as well as 2,310 observers will monitor the presidential elections at their own initiatives, Mazahir Panahov, the CEC chairman said.
Registration of observers will finish 10 days before the elections day at the CEC and 5 days before at elections commissions. /Trend/

The Azerbaijani Elections 2008 Non-Government Organization (NGO) Coalition will follow the presidential elections with 1,500 observers. Observers will hold supervision at 60 constituencies, the coalition told Trend News on 26 September.
Constituencies, where the coalition will hold observation, will cover six Azerbaijani regions, including Garabag, Aran, Ganjabasar, North, South and Baku.
The coalition will publicize their primary opinion concerning the presidential elections on 16 October.
Members of the Elections 2008 NGO Coalition visited Barda, Goranboy, Ganja, Tovuz and Gazakh Regions to get familiarization with the pre-elections situation. The coalition members acquainted with voters’ lists at the polling stations. They revealed problems with specifying of voters’ lists at stations near to refugee camps. /Trend/

Members of the CIS observation mission met with Fuad Aliyev, the presidential candidate of Azerbaijan Liberal- Democrat Party and his attorney, Mission’s PS told the APA. During the meeting the sides discussed the overall preparations for presidential elections of presidential candidate Fuad Aliyev.
Meanwhile, the observers also met with Hafiz Hajiyev, the presidential candidate of Modern Musavat Party and his attorney. The CIS mission plans to visit Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Gabala and Shaki regions on September 27. /APA/

Presidential candidate, chairman of United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party Gudrat Hasanguliyev met with the voters in Goychay. APA’s local bureau reports that chief of the party’s region organization, the candidate’s lawyer Bakhtiyar Zeynalov made a keynote speech at the meeting and gave information Gudrat Hasanguliyev’s political conception and election platform. Gudrat Hasanguliyev spoke about social-economic problems in Azerbaijani regions, as well as in Goychay and showed ways of their solution. The presidential candidate shares his views on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, work to be done in the spheres of education, health and agriculture.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party said not enough conditions had been created for the candidates in the regions.
Gudrat Hasanguliyev answered the voters’ questions. The voters presented their letters of complaint to the presidential candidate. /APA/

Central Election Commission (CEC) appealed to presidential candidate, chairman of Azerbaijan Liberal Democrat Party Fuad Aliyev, spokesman for CEC Azer Sariyev said, APA reports. He said that Fuad Aliyev had not shown requisites in the promotion photos. Azer Sariyev said it contradicted the law, and added that Fuad Aliyev’s party is replacing his photos by new ones with requisites on them. Azer Sariyev said the presidential candidates presented copies of all the promotion materials. He said six out of seven candidates had already presented the materials to the CEC. Only Gulamhuseyn Alibayli has not published any promotion materials yet. /APA/

Media Group under CEC has considered appeals of Umid Party in today‘s meeting, APA reports.
Azer Tagiyev, Head of Media Group told that Umid Party had appealed that Aydin Mirzazadeh, member with advisory voice campaigned via Public Radio against instructions of the body.
Member of the body Fuad Javadov noted that Mirzazadeh was member with advisory voice and a lawyer of Ilham Aliyev, candidate from YAP. On the other hand, Electoral Code does not ban a member with advisory voice to carry on agitation.
“Decisive members with advisory voice are banned to make propaganda,” he said. Member of group Almas Gahramanova stated that there was no need for member with advisory voice to campaign, because candidate had 50 lawyers. Plenipotentiary representative of presidential candidate of Umid Party Masimi Mammadli said that the step would cause to a precedent and other members with advisory voice would join propagating campaign during next levels. The meeting also covered an appeal of Umid Party on Modern Musavat Party. The appeal says that Faig Bakhshaliyev, a member with advisory voice introduced himself to Public Television as plenipotentiary representative and made a speech. Bakhshaliyev addressing the meeting stated that it was an untrue report.
“I have presented my card on member with advisory voice in Public Television”, he said. Both of appeals of Umid Party were groundless. Members of Media Group Almas Gahramanli and Mahabbat Orujov stated that candidate of Modern Musavat Party Hafiz Hajiyev sounded insults via Television. Tagiyev asked leadership of Public Television to present speeches of Hajiyev. Next meeting will consider and assess speeches of Hajiyev. /APA/

“Some presidential candidates use offensive words during their speeches on TV, violating 88th article of the Electoral Code. Despite that the presenter has no right to interfere, he warned the candidates for many times not to allow such cases”, Director General of the Public Broadcasting Company Ismayil Omarov told APA. He said he believed such cases wouldn’t be allowed further. He said according to law, Public Television was not responsible for the ideas voiced on live air.
Speaking about the dissatisfaction with the air time of debates, Omarov said the time was determined by the Central Election Commission in the presence of representatives of the candidates. “We stated that we were ready to assign any duration of air time, but decision was made by CEC in their presence and no one can violate this collegial decision. The audience knows that space from 18.50 to 19.50 is a time of discussions on Public Television”.
The Director General said that “they were ready to cover all events of the forces boycotting the elections, but assignment of special air time for the boycott would be violation of rights of 7 presidential candidates”. /APA/

“Free, Transparent and Just Elections” Coalition announced results of monitoring carried out during election campaign. Press Service of Coalition told APA.
According to the results of monitoring from September 7 to 24, there were few materials on elections in media. It was linked with fact that presidential candidates are not interested in publishing of materials. According to monitoring carried out in six daily newspapers, total, 141 materials have been published during above-mentioned period. Newspapers, publishing in Russian prefer analytical materials, but Azerbaijani newspapers prefer to spread information, irrespective of their importance. 74 of articles on election were related to candidates. There were 29 articles on Ilham Aliyev, 18 articles on Igbal Agazadeh, 12 articles on Gudrat Hasanguliyev, 7 articles on Gulamhuseyin Alibayli, 5 articles on Hafiz Hajiyev, 2 articles on Fazil Gazanfaroglu, 1 article on Fuad Aliyev. A part of articles were for candidates, but other parts were against of them. The report of coalition says that though a part of election campaign left behind, there is not broad promotion of candidates. /APA/

Azerbaijan’s presidential candidate Hafiz Hajiyev will start meetings with voters. His election office told APA that Hafiz Hajiyev would meet with the voters in Salyan the next day.
The candidate has also sent letters to the relevant bodies for meeting with prisoners. /APA/

APA and experts seek answer for question “Which candidate’s poster is better?”
Election campaign of the presidential candidates started on September 17. Photos of five candidates have already been pasted. There exist various views on how attractive the photos, posters should be in order to draw the attention of the voters.

Head of Independent Consulting Center for Civil Society Eldar Ismayilov told APA that posters were not so important for winning in Azerbaijan, but the posters of Ilham Aliyev were the most attractive. Eldar Ismayilov said there was nothing extraordinary in other posters.

President of Constitutional Research Fund Alimammad Nuriyev regarded the candidates’ posters as “good photos for acquaintance”.
“Ilham Aliyev’s photos have good photo effect. But it would be better if the posters contained slogans reflecting the candidate’s platform. In this respect I think Gudrat Hasanguliyev’s poster is good,” he said.
Nuriyev said photos could reflect both the candidates’ activity and promises.
“Unfortunately, these photos can attract only 5-7 percent of the voters,” he said.

Head of election department of the association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan Maharram Zulfugarli said every candidate should take into account three criteria before joining the elections. These are time, human resources and money.
“Despite the start of the election campaign, the photos of only four or five candidates have been introduced. It shows that some candidates have not made preparations for the process seriously. The photos are not attractive enough. Special technologies have not been used. Posters of Ilham Aliyev and Gudrat Hasanguliyev are good,” he said.
Zulfugarli also said that they monitored the candidates’ promotion activities.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Advertisers Union Hacami Atakishiyev featured the photo-posters of the candidates professionally. “Ilham Aliyev’s photo-poster was chosen successfully in terms of introduction. No extra components were used in the poster and he is saying this is Me. Ilham Aliyev’s poster is effective in this term. Other posters have artificial elements and it appears mostly in Igbal Agazadeh’s, Gudrat Hasanguliyev’s and Fazil Gazanfaroglu’s photo-posters. Fazil Gzanfaroglu’s poster was not chosen correctly. There are mostly tourist elements. A jacket is hanging on hand and left old city behind”. Atakishiyev said political advertisement had to introduce the person. “It should be concrete introduction of the person in the political advertisements, because components around are distracting attention”.
Advertising manager Nadir Badalov said that the posters were not meeting the international standards. “First of all photo of the presidential candidates shouldn’t be introduced to the society in A2 format. The photos are not bad. I think only Ilham Aliyev doesn’t need in introduction to the society. Fazil Gazanfaroglu’s and Gudrat Hasanguliyev’s photos are simple in terns of political advertising. There are positive findings in Igbal Agazadeh’s picture and slogan”. Badalov said ordinary voters couldn’t see differences in these posters. “It is a chance for those who want to introduce themselves to the society”. Badalov said candidates run for elections in Europe preferred larger and politically-featured posters. /APA/

The election campaign of Ilham Aliyev, the presidential candidate of Azerbaijan’s governing New Azerbaijan Party (NAP), is underway in all regions of the country. “Hundreds thousand of people have participated in the NAP election campaign under the slogan ‘Forward with Ilham’, NAP news service said to Trend News on 25 September.
“Every meeting envisaged in the election campaign of Ilham Aliyev is mass and active. The meetings held once more proved that the political course of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, political and economic reforms implemented by his successor Ilham Aliyev are unanimously supported by the people,” news service said.
According to the NAP, electors, public representatives with pleasure join the meetings which are held in the places envisaged for candidate’s mass actions by the law. They also highly appreciate the economic and social development in the country under the leadership of worthy continuator of Heydar Aliyev’s course and unconditionally support the candidature of country’s current President. “The election campaign of President Ilham Aliyev is underway. Owing to the most up-to-date elections technologies applied by the NAP, the election history of today’s Azerbaijan opened a new page,” party said.
Representatives of the NAP election campaign held meetings with electors in Zagatala, Sheki, Gabala, Ujar, Agdash, Shamkir, Gadabay, Lerik, Masalli, Samukh, Imishli, Terter regions in the country and in the Yasamal, Sabunchu, Surakhani, Garadag, Binagadi, Nasimi districts in Baku. /Trend/