Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Internal corporate network of the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan can act in perspective as a platform to launch electronic voting system in the election process in the country.

This was announced by the Director of the CEC Information Center, Rufat Gulmammadov at a briefing organized by the Information and Computing Center of Azerbaijan's Communications and High Technologies Ministry on October 9.

According to him, addressing the issues of legal regulation is an important component of this process.

"Of course, if this issue is reflected in the legislation, I believe that it can be tesolved without any problems from the technical point of view. As an example, we can say that the electronic voting system is not used in many countries, and there are countries where it is at the pilot stage. And there are such countries where this project was doomed to failure," he added.

Gulmammadov also noted that the CEC corporate network has been operating for more than three years and was successfully used in previous elections.

"From this point of view, if the issue of electronic voting will be reflected in legislation of the country, this corporate network can act as a platform for the launch of e-voting," he said.

Azerbaijan will hold parliamentary elections on November 1. Preparations for the upcoming elections are in full swing. Campaigning of 1,233 registered candidates started on October 9 and will last until 8:00 a.m. October 31, exactly 23 days before voting as required by law.

In accordance with the schedule, approved by the CEC, campaigning can be carried out by registered candidates, their authorized representatives and agents, political parties, blocs of political parties, their authorized representatives and agents.

During this parliamentary election, approximately 10 persons will compete for one seat at the 125-seat Azerbaijani Parliament, the supreme legislative body of the country.

According to the law of Azerbaijan "On freedom of assembly," some 128 public and 128 private locations have been designated for candidates to meet with voters in 117 electoral districts throughout the country.

The CEC has already launched training for members of lower election commissions in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections. The first stage of the trainings will last four days and they will be attended by two representatives from each election constituency. Over 30,000 members of lower election commissions will participate in the trainings.

Ruling party actively prepares for elections

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party, the candidates of which are registered in more than 60 constituencies, is actively preparing for the upcoming parliamentary elections

On October 9, the ruling party launched pre-election website (www.yap.az), which will cover the period of the campaigning for parliamentary elections.

The website, the slogan of which is "Towards new goals!" has categories such as "Candidates", "Azerbaijan: 2005-2015", "10 successful heights," "10 steps towards new goals" and "List of voters".

The site contains information about the events taking place in the country and the world, as well as expert opinions on various issues. Also there are various links that can be useful to a wider audience.

The ruling party has also waived its right to conduct free campaigning in the mass media outlets. The party appealed to the CEC with a letter which reads that the party's decision aims to complaint with the principle of equality during the election campaigning by political parties and independent candidates participating in the elections.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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