The Azerbaijani opposition bloc Azadlig (Liberty) considers some opposition parties’ opinion regarding the mass actions as incorrect step.
“Arguments of political forces, which refused to participate in the presidential elections, should be publicized. It is impossible to inform the whole society only through media. Mass actions should be used as a mean of publicizing these arguments,” Ali Aliyev, the chairman of the Citizen and Development Party (CDP), told Trend News on 24 September.
At the beginning of September, parties included in Azadlig bloc the (the Popular Front Party, the Liberal Party and the Citizen and Development), the Musavat Party and the Public Forum ‘For Azerbaijan’ signed a joint statement on recognition of the presidential elections to be held on 15 October as illegitimate. Government to be formed after the presidential elections, are announced as illegitimate in the statement.
On 22 September political organizations, which signed a joint statement to boycott the presidential elections, applied to the Baku City Administration to sanction a demonstration scheduled for 28 September.
Work with public on demonstration is delayed a little bit, Aliyev said. “The organizing committee in charge of arrangements for demonstration is waiting for a reply from the Baku City Administration. As soon as the place of mass actions is defined, we will launch mechanisms to inform the public on demonstrations,” he said.
“It depends on a place to be authorized for mass actions,” Aliyev said. He was commenting on appeals by other opposition parties on joining the demonstration. “We do not have a concrete decision on an official appeal to other political parties. Following a decision on authorization of the place a meeting, we will decide to whom appeal in this respect,” Aliyev said.
Although about 10,000 people are expected to participate in demonstration, Aliyev find it difficult to make earlier forecasts on mass actions. “It has been three years that freedom of assembly is not provided in Azerbaijan. We mentioned in the appeal, which was submitted to the City Administration, that about 10,000 people are expected to participate in the action, taking into consideration resources of political organizations. However, number of participants in the demonstration may rise,” the CDP chairman said. /Trend/