Council of Europe will hold three events in August in connection with the presidential elections in Azerbaijan. APA reports that CE Venice Commission, IFES and Central Election Commission will hold a workshop on August 21-22 and August 25-26.
The workshop is for the lawyers and secretaries of Central Election Commission and election constituencies.

TV journalists will be trained for covering the elections within the framework of the joint project of the Council of Europe and Internews on August 23-24. Journalists of the local TV channels will attend the trainings. Experts of the Council of Europe and local experts will train the journalists.

The Central Elections Commission of Azerbaijan (CEC) officially confirmed the current State Head Ilham Aliyev as Presidential candidate at a meeting held on 16 August.
Making a speech at the meeting, the CEC Head Mazahir Panahov said that the governing New Azerbaijan Party submitted 46,750 signatures, with 46,203 valid and other part – invalid.
According to the legislation of Azerbaijan, at least 40,000 signatures should be presented to the CEC for confirmation of Presidential candidature.

Azerbaijan Social-Democrat Party (ASDP) passed decision not to participate in the presidential elections. The decision was made at the meeting of ASDP Central Committee on August 18, the party sources told APA. Members of the Central Committee related their decision with anti-democratic atmosphere in the country. They also discussed the socio-political situation in the country and other issues as well.

The Democratic Azerbaijan World Party (ADWP) nominated the current President Ilham Aliyev, the chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) for the presidential elections at the third conference of the party held on 18 August. Mammad Alizade, the chairman of the DAWP, told a conference that he was sure Ilham Aliyev would win with majority of votes in the upcoming presidential elections. He offered to nominate Ilham Aliyev who is supported by the majority of the Azerbaijani people, and members of the conference supported his offer unanimously. About 650 members of the party took part in the conference.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry invited international organizations to watchdog the upcoming presidential elections.
“The invited organizations are OSCE, PACE, GUAM and CIS. OSCE and PACE have already defined their observers,” Khazar Ibrahim, a spokesperson in the Foreign Ministry, said to journalists on 18 August.
“OSCE will send 30 long standing and 450 short standing observers headed by Boris Firlish, Slovenian diplomat. OSCE’s mission arrives in Baku on 7 September,” Ibrahim said. PACE is expected to send 30 observers headed by Andreas Herkel.

An expert group to investigate appeals on the threshold of presidential elections has been founded in the Central Election Commission (CEC). Group unites nine members from CEC.
Similar expert groups are expected to be founded in lower election commissions. Azerbaijan will host the presidential elections on 15 October 2008. So far, 14 contenders have nominated their candidatures to the presidential post.

At its congress on 18 August, Yurddash oppositional party of Azerbaijan made a decision supporting candidate from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP), the current Head of State Ilham Aliyev, in the Presidential elections. “Yurddash Party considers that the President Ilham Aliyev possesses the highest chances amongst the candidates, and therefore, the participants in the congress made a decision to support the candidate from NAP, the chairman of Yurddash Party, former MP Mayis Safarli, told TrendNews on 18 August.
Yurddash Party was created at the beginning of 1990. For long time, it has been represented in the democratic congress and other oppositional unions. Safarli was an MP in 2000 - 2005.

On 18 August, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) confirmed the nomination of two more people for presidential elections, including Teymur Guliyev, advisor of Madaniyyet (Culture) newspaper, and Suleyman Guliyev, the editor-in-chief of Ekspertiza (Examination) newspaper.
Number of presidential contenders, confirmed by CEC, reached 14. The CEC registered the candidatures of the chairman of the governing New Azerbaijan Party and current President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting held on 16 August.

Former Chairman of General Assembly of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP), Gulamhuseyn Alibeyli, will withdraw his presidential candidate, a reliable source told TrendNews on 18 August.
Alibayli resigned from the party on 8 August. He refused to explain details of his resignation and said that he would be engaged in political activity independently. Then Alibayli nominated his candidature for the presidential post. The Central Elections Commission of Azerbaijan (CEC) confirmed the presidential candidature of Gulamhuseyn Alibayli at a meeting held on 16 August.

The observation mission of Commonwealth of Independent States will observe the presidential elections in Azerbaijan on October 15, Rovzat Gasimov, Head of the International Relations Department of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan told APA. He said CIS Parliamentary Assembly responded the CEC invitation several days ago. Gasimov noted that members and authorities of the observation mission would be announced in the next few days.

Purpose of the monitoring begun on 1 August is to assist in lightening of the election campaign in mass media and securing equal participation of all political forces. Council of Europe recommends that mass media (MM) must enlighten the election campaigns in balanced, just and precise manner. The monitoring to be carried out on 7 national TV channels and 8 newspapers will continue till October 15 and reports will be submitted in every 15 days.
The monitoring includes calculation of air time of information materials and political advertisement in TV channels, as well as protection of objectivity and balance in all MM. Meanwhile, the total results of the monitoring will be announced after presidential elections.
Information presented in TV channels after official registration about presidential candidates will be represented as a negative, positive and neutral assessment. Meanwhile, the monitoring also reflects international opinion, declarations and thoughts of the representatives of foreign states and international organizations.

Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan has approved the candidature of a member from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) to consultative position. Aydin Mirzazade is the member of the Political Council of NAP.
On 2 August, the candidature of the Azerbaijani incumbent President Ilham Aliyev was nominated to the presidential post. So far, Aliyev’s candidature has been supported by the Ana Vatan and Social Welfare parties, Trade Union Confederation and Azerbaijani Red Half Moon Society. The opposition Vahdat party took a decision to support Aliyev’s candidature.