Background

President Ilham Aliyev signed the new law "On Political Parties." The text of the law was published in the official media on January 11 of this year. The document states that political parties must have 5,000 members for state registration. At the same time, if the number of members in a state-registered political party is below 4,500, a lawsuit is filed in court to cancel the state registration of that political party. 

In the last few months, more than 30 parties stopped their existence. This list includes the Independent People's Party, Azerbaijan National Democratic Party, New Way Party, Azerbaijan Republican Party, Independent Azerbaijan Party, Azerbaijan United Communist Party, Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party, Azerbaijan Liberal Democratic Party, and others.

Azerbaijan Popular Front Party

According to the new law "On Political Parties," political parties must apply to the Ministry of Justice for re-registration by July 12.

The Azerbaijan People's Front Party (APFP) applied to the Ministry of Justice for re-registration by the requirements of the legislation. 

According to the information of Ali Karimli, the chairman of the APFP, the shortcomings mentioned in the letter of the Ministry of Justice regarding the list are imprecise and abstract: "In the register we submitted to the ministry, we submitted information about 5,315 members of the People's Party of the People's Democratic Party. The ministry wrote in its reply that the register submitted by us allegedly contained information about 5,138 people (177 people less). Then the ministry claims that the information about 2,497 people included in the register (name, surname, patronymic, date of birth) should be clarified. How do we know which party member's information is correct from your side? Whose information is considered to be 'incorrectly displayed'? What's wrong?" 

The party's chairman noted that their 5,000 members could gather and appear in front of the ministry at the time set by the Ministry of Justice so that the ministry could see and count them. Ali Karimli added that other shortcomings indicated in the letter of the Ministry of Justice include the fact that 119 people are members of other parties, the information on 59 people is repeated, and 609 people are not members of the APFP. The other comments are also completely unconvincing and made with political considerations. The Ministry of Justice should accurately and precisely show the information that it considers to be incorrect and lacking in the register of APFP members. We have the right to know that specific party members included in the register are considered members of other parties, who specifically told the Ministry of Justice that they are not APFP members, and which party members' names were repeated in the register," the APFP chairman said.

Karimli stressed that they would send a letter to the Ministry of Justice and demand a detailed and justified answer: "We are ready to cut all the excuses. They want us to collect copies of the ID cards of the party members and submit them to the ministry. They want us to gather directly in front of the ministry, as I wrote at the beginning of the article. We will use all the legal ways. Even when the legal ways are blocked, we have political ways in front of us. We will not accept the government's policy of destroying the real opposition and creating a one-party system."

Musavat Party

The Musavat Party also applied to the Ministry of Justice for re-registration by the legislation requirements. In the list of 5212 members of the Ministry of Justice, the information about 2766 people was not recorded correctly; 250 people stated that they were not party members, and the information about 11 people was repeated.

Arif Hajili, the head of the Musavat Party, stated that the Ministry of Justice needs to clarify its opinion. He noted that the party was given 30 days to solve all these problems: "We still don't know how accurate this information is. If those persons said 'I'm not a member' to a stranger's phone call, they cannot automatically be considered 'not a member' of the party. We will apply to the Ministry of Justice again in this regard, and if there are indeed defects mentioned, while we have sent information by the law 'On Political Parties' and even taking into account the anti-democratic provisions, we will correct those defects."

The party leader said that if this is not enough, they will submit the updated list to the Ministry of Justice. "The Musavat Party will not allow any excuses from the legal point of view to respond to their demands, taking into account the additional changes made to the law 'On Political Parties' intended as pressure on political parties," Hajili said.

The REAL Party

The Republican Alternative (REAL) Party applied to the Ministry of Justice to re-register by the legislation requirements. The Ministry of Justice said that only 463 members of this party's list are valid.

The information of the REAL party stated: "We received an official response from the Ministry of Justice as the REAL party. He says we have contacted the members whose names you indicated in the registry. Nine hundred eighty-six people stated that they are not members of the party. You gave your office number as the phone number of 1058 other people, which we do not consider acceptable. Information about 2527 people (name, surname, date of birth) was not found in the State Population Register (probably due to typos). Finally, the names of 68 people were repeated, and 16 people died. Thus, the names of only 463 people in the list of our Party became 'valid.' According to the law, within the next 30 days, we must either 'correct' the information of 4,500+ people, recruit the same number of new members, or leave the party. We will inform the public about our decision this week", the REAL Party said.