News.Az interviews Gudrat Hasanguliyev, chairman of the United Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan and a deputy of the Milli Majlis.
What is the United Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party doing to prepare for the autumn parliamentary elections?
Our party is receiving proposals from various political parties. We study and assess them and we will probably decide on how we will contest the parliamentary elections, whether as part of an election bloc or independently. The United Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party has so far decided to nominate at least 70 party members as candidates. This will qualify us for the proposed free campaign air time, since at least 61 party members have to be registered as candidates for a party to gain free air time. Second, when candidates are nominated in all constituencies, the parties are offered financial resources and it is very important because our party does not have enough funds to hold a top quality election campaign. We also think that the party has the potential to nominate 70 candidates. Therefore, if we take part in the parliamentary elections independently, our party will nominate candidates in 70 constituencies.
Negotiations are under way to create two election blocs, one of which will be formed around the parties in the Azadlig bloc and the other will involve the Musavat Party. Which of the two blocs would you choose?
To be honest, we will probably not be part of these two blocs. If we decide to unite with other parties, we will be in quite a different election bloc, which will involve opposition political parties that are loyal towards the authorities and are ready to cooperate with the country’s leadership. And I think that there are such parties in Azerbaijan and we have held preliminary negotiations with such parties. I mean the constructive opposition.
I would like to say once again that we will not be part of either of the blocs that you mentioned.
So the opposition parties are to create at least four blocs for the parliamentary elections: the bloc involving Azadlig, the bloc involving Musavat, the third bloc that you have just mentioned and a fourth bloc of left-wing opposition parties?
This may be the case, it may be that more than four election blocs will be created and some political parties will contest the parliamentary elections independently.
Don’t you see yourself cooperating with the left-wing opposition?
You know, the United Popular Front Party is a right-wing party and, therefore, it would be wrong to unite with the left-wing parties. Certainly, after elections right-wing parties sometimes create a government with left-wing parties, which mostly depends on the people’s choice. However, I consider it wrong to unite the right-wing and left-wing in a single bloc ahead of the elections, because it is up to the electorate to decide for whom to vote. In this sense, I think the separate participation of right and left-wing parties in parliamentary elections is better.
Is the United Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan going to take the lead position, or in other words, to be a central link in the election bloc?
We are just going to be one of the parties with equal rights in the election bloc. We do not claim to form the bloc around us, because such claims often hamper the creation of political blocs. Therefore, we want to hope that the bloc will be created and I consider possible the unification of the bloc's parties into a single political party in future. Moreover, I think it is possible that joint sessions of the bloc's parties will be held to decide on the creation of the new political party that will unite the political organizations represented in the bloc.
Can you say approximately how many parties are going to create the election bloc?
I will tell you that we expect about four parties to create the election bloc, but it is quite possible that the number of parties will grow if the parties in the bloc think new members are needed. This issue does not depend only on us. The basis of our election bloc will be four parties that may support the admission of a new member.
Leyla Tagiyeva
News.Az