30 thousand blind electors in Azerbaijan can vote easily in the presidential elections, Samyar Abdullayev, Chairman of Azerbaijan Blind Men Society told APA. He said the blind men would vote via scantling system, which has no analogue in CIS. He said his society would reach agreement with the Central Election Commission. “According to this agreement special ballots issued for the blind voters will be sent to all polling stations. Those ballots with the scantling system will not be much different than usual. The blind voters can find the name of candidate they choose and vote easily without the help of anyone”.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) issued registration cards and will complete sending the cards to the district election commissions. Chief of the CEC Press Service Azer Sariyev told APA the registration cards should be sent to the district commissions in 50 days and to the polling stations in 25 days before the elections according to the Electoral Code.
Sariyev said the voters, who wouldn’t be at the territory they were registered, could vote at the available polling stations in the country’s territory. Therefore the voters should receive registration cards from the district election commissions from September 12 until October 12. The voter can present this card at any polling station on elections day and vote.

Azerbaijani opposition Adalat party has defined the candidate to nominate to the presidential elections.
“Adalat will support the candidature of Fazil Gaznfaroglu, chairman of the Great Establishment Party (GEP),” a source told Trend News.
GEP Assembly has nominated Gazanfaroglu’s candidature. The Central Election Commission (CEC) approved his candidature. Elkhan Shukurlu, Deputy Chairman of Adalat, initiated to nominate Gazanfaroglu’s candidature. Shukurlu’s supporters have already commenced the process to collect the necessary 40,000 signatures.

In connection with the presidential elections, polling stations will be established on oil platforms being located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and at ships, which will sail in the elections day, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) told Trend News on 23 August.
Polling stations will be established at ships and oil platforms, if the number of voters is more than 50, the CEC said. Poling stations will be organized at hospitals and rest homes. The relevant executive bodies and municipals will participate in establishment of these polling stations. At present definite work is being carried out in this regard.

Central Election Commission (CEC), Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) continued training for the employees of election constituencies responsible for applications and complaints on the theme “Rules of considering applications and complaints”, APA reports. 60 representatives of election constituencies attended the next stage of training. Secretary of Central Election Commission Natig Mammadov delivered a speech on the theme. Experts of the Council of Europe on complaints appeals and IFES expert Jonathan Bernstein briefed about the European experience of considering the appeals.

Germany will observe the presidential elections in Azerbaijan in line with the OSCE. “Germany, as a member of the OSCE, will send its observers in line with the OSCE,” the Ambassador of Germany to Azerbaijan, Pier Christopher Stanckin, told TrendNews on 25 August.
The Ambassador said that Germany does not plan to provide technical assistance in holding the presidential elections in Azerbaijan.
The candidates should gather more than 40,000 signatures within ten days to be registered by the CEC.
The CEC officially confirmed candidature of State Head Ilham Aliyev.

The opposition Azerbaijan National Independence Party (ANIP) officially refused to join the co-operation format of the opposition parties boycotting the presidential elections. “The issue has been discussed at the leading structures of the party, where the ANIP’s participation in new co-operation organization was considered as unreasonable,” Ali Orujov, the deputy chairman of the ANIP, told Trend News on 22 August.
Azadlig bloc Board of Chairmen made a decision to establish a co-operation centre of the parties, which refused to join the presidential elections, at the meeting held last week. Fuad Mustafayev, the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan functionary, was authorized to negotiate on behalf of the bloc in this regard. The main principle of the co-operation is to accept and confirm the elections as illegitimate, Mustafayev said. “We will co-operate with the parties, which accept this principle,” he said.

The date to hold the special meeting of the National Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (NDPA) has been announced. Ogtai Khalili, chairman of the Organization Committee of the party, told Trend News that the meeting would be held in the Baku theatre on 24 August.
According to Khalili, NDPA has appealed to the Baku City Administration to allocate the aforesaid theatre to hold a meeting. “On 22 August, we received an unexpected response to our appeal,” Khalili said.
NDPA, formerly known as the Grey Wolves Party, is a political party in Azerbaijan. It is the branch of the Grey Wolves in Azerbaijan. Isgandar Hamidov, a party member, was the Internal Minister of Azerbaijan of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party government. The party was banned in 1995 and Hamidov imprisoned, however, the party is again functioning today with Hamidov as the party leader.

Gulamhuseyn Alibayli, former chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), has formed his own election headquarters. “Gorkhmaz Ibrahimli, chairman of the Democratic Election Centre (DEC) will head the headquarters,” Alibayli told Trend News on 22 August.
Alibayli does not intend to create an election bloc around himself. “We have started to collect the necessary 40,000 signatures. At present, the signature collection process has been started in approximately 70 – 80 electoral districts and 2 or 3 people are involved into each district. The campaign on signature collection will cover nearly 100 districts. We expect to complete the process within a week,” Alibayli said.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) carries out selection of local observers for the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan.
Mission’s activity will last from 20 August to 1 November 2008. The key requirements are higher education degree and two years work experience, OSCE Baku office reported.
The Azadlig bloc, which unites three opposition parties – Popular Front, Liberal and Citizen and Development), as well as Classical Popular Front, Open Society, Musavat, Civil Solidarity, Democratic, Great Establishment, Azadlig parties and Eldar Namazov, head of the Public Forum For the name of Azerbaijan refused to participate in the forthcoming presidential elections.

The Azerbaijani opposition parties boycotting the presidential elections have agreed to establish a new unity.
“Negotiations on this matter are very constructive and I hope that we can form a new co-operation centre of the opposition soon,” Ali Karimli, the chairman of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP), told journalists on 22 August.
Musavat Party, Liberal Party, Democratic Party, Citizen and Development Party, Classic Popular Front Party and APFP boycott the upcoming presidential elections.
“The opposition parties try to give a principle assessment to the elections, which they boycott, and this is our major principle. We will adopt a general document on the results of the elections after this assessment,” Karimli said.

The opposition Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (DPA) considers that the parties’ wide cooperation format, which refused to participate in the presidential elections, would not be implemented. “We have supervised that the key talks were directed to establish a union of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) with Musavat,” Sardar Jalaloglu, chairman of DPA, told Trend News.
The parties’ cooperation centre, which refused from participation in the elections, was decided to establish at the meeting of the Azadlig Council of Chairmen. Fuad Mustafayev, an organization man from PFPA, was entrusted to hold the talks. Mustafayev said that the key aim of the cooperation was to adopt and approve the elections illegitimacy.