Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 August / Trend corr. E.Babayev / According to the ruling New Azerbaijan party (NAP), the traditional opposition starts to leave the political arena. "At present, the old oppositon is replaced by a new one," MP Aydin Mirzazade, a member of the Political Council of NAP, told Trend commenting the reasons for non-alignment of the traditional opposition to the upcoming presidential elections.
Azerbaijan will host the presidential elections on 15 October. Two opposition parties (Popular Front and Citizen and Development) and one movement (National Unity), which are represented in the Azadlig bloc, as well as the Classical Popular Front Party made a decision to boycott the elections. Musavat, Citizen Solidarity, Democratic and Great Establishment parties refused from participation in the elections with their own candidates.
So far eleven people have appealed to the Central Election Commission (CEC) with regard to participate in the forthcoming presidential elections. NAP has nominated the candidature of the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, Umid party - chairman Igbal Agazade, Modern Musavat party - chairman Hafiz Haciyev, Popular Front Party of Unified Azerbaijan - chairman Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Liberal and Democratic Party - chairman Fuad Aliyev, Green Party of Azerbaijan - chairman Mais Gulaliyev, as well as Yashar Ahmadov - jobless, Alimukhtar Akparov -pensioner, Sevinc Guliyeva - hospital attendant in the Central Clinical Hospital in Sumgayit, Vugar Seidov -physician and Gudrat Isagov - leading science employee in the Physics Institute under the National Academy of Science of Azerbaijan (NASA).
Mirzazade said that the current pre-election situation in the country shows the replacement of the Azerbaijani opposition. "Actually, such replacement had been visible since 2000. The traditional and classical opposition of Azerbaijan, which was founded on the ground of the Popular Front, could not be renewed. Opposition could not use the new technologies and to work with the social base in the new form. Therefore, the new opposition appeared. In 2003, the new opposition was still weak. However, it became strengthening after 2005. The new opposition hold intensive works with media and holds relations with international organizations, as well as it is represented in the Parliament. Nobody should think that the new opposition supports the authorities. It criticizes the policy of the authorities. Despite of the old opposition, the new opposition criticizes the authorities but not blindly and proposes new ideas. A new political panorama will emerge after the presidential elections and before the parliamentary elections in 2010." Mirzazade rejects the Government's direct interest to create a new opposition. "The authorities are interested to increase the number of its supporters. The authorities do not see any difference to hold political struggle. Both the old and new opposition want to come to the office,' Mirzazade stated.
According to the political scientist Zardusht Alizade, there is not a ground to replace the old opposition by a new one. "The old opposition has never hindered to emerge of a new one. From this point of view, Alizade rejects that the old opposition has created a ground for the new one by refusing to participate in the elections. "The traditional opposition has its permanent supporters. Therefore, I do not believe that the old opposition will leave the political arena completely," Alizade stated.
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