|
Azerbaijan Party Configuration after 1991
Two small parties, the Independent Democratic Party (IDP) and
the National Independence Party (NIP), were formed by former
members of the APF in early 1992. The IDP was led by Leyla
Yunosova, a prominent intellectual who had helped form the APF,
and the NIP was led by Etibar Mamedov, a frequent critic of
Elchibey's rule and APF domination of the electoral process.
Azerbaijani military defeats in March 1993 led Mamedov to call
for Elchibey's resignation. Mamedov initially approved Elchibey's
ouster by Aliyev and the subsequent referendum on his rule.
The ACP formally disbanded in September 1991 during a wave of
popular revulsion against the role it played in supporting the
Moscow coup attempted against Gorbachev the previous month.
Nevertheless, former leaders and members of the ACP continue to
play a role in the family- and patronage-based political system,
and Aliyev's faction regained its preeminent position. The ACP
was revived formally in December 1993 at a "restorative"
congress, after which it reported having 3,000 members. When
Aliyev ran for president in 1993, he combined former communists
and other minor groups into the New Azerbaijan Party, which
became the governing party when Aliyev was elected.
Under election legislation passed since Aliyev's accession, a
party must have at least 1,000 members to be legally registered
by the Ministry of Justice. Party membership is forbidden to
government officials in agencies of the judiciary, law
enforcement, security, border defense, customs, taxation,
finance, and the state-run media. The president and members of
the clergy are likewise enjoined. Parties are not allowed to
accept foreign funding or to establish cells in government
agencies. The government has banned parties that reject
Azerbaijan's territorial integrity or inflame racial, national,
or religious enmity.
Data as of March 1994
|
