AZERI LEADER HAPPY WITH ELECTION CAMPAIGN START
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
8 Sep 05
[Presenter] President Ilham Aliyev is visiting Astara [southern
Azerbaijan] today. Aliyev said the fact that over 2,000 people had been
nominated as parliamentary candidates showed the people’s interest
in the election. The initial stage of the election has successfully
finished, he said.
[Passage omitted: Aliyev attended a ceremony to unveil a bust of his
father Heydar Aliyev]
[Correspondent by phone] President Ilham Aliyev started the tour of
southern districts from Lankaran. Addressing a ceremony to unveil
a bust of Heydar Aliyev in a park outside the town administration
building, Aliyev said that the aim of the trip was to familiarize
himself with work done to implement the regional socio-economic
development programme.
He said 3,000 new jobs would be created throughout the country by the
end of the year. Measures had been taken to improve the population’s
social situation, Aliyev said, mentioning an increase in salaries
and pensions. He also said an a minimum salary would be increased to
150,000 manats [32 dollars] from 1 October.
As to the forthcoming parliamentary election, Aliyev said that the
initial stage of the election had successfully finished. The fact that
over 2,000 candidates have been registered shows people’s belief in
the democratic conduct of the election, he said.
Speaking about the Karabakh peace talks, Aliyev said that the talks
had yielded no result yet and Azerbaijan should constantly strengthen
its military potential. A total of 300m dollars were allocated to
military expenditures this year and the figure will total 600m dollars
the next year, Aliyev said. Azerbaijan is ahead of Armenia in terms
of military potential, he said.
[Passage omitted: Aliyev visits a medical centre in Lankaran]
[Bilik Dunyasi, in Russian 0841 gmt 8 Sep 05 quoted Aliyev as saying
that a 20-per-cent economic growth was registered in the country in
the past eight months]