Azerbaijan, Baku, May 19 /Trend News, J. Babayeva/

Ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) says the number of municipalities must be significantly reduced.

"There are too many municipalities in Azerbaijan. Reducing number of municipalities will contribute to quality of their work and improve administration system," NAP Deputy Executive Secretary and member of parliament Siyavush Novruzov told Trend News. 

Azerbaijan will hold municipal elections in December. There are 2,750 municipalities in Azerbaijan.

Novruzov said the ruling party is preparing for the municipals elections. "The territorial meetings will be held starting from late May. The regional and city organizations will study and implement the legislation in detail and nominate candidates. We plan to use potential of the youth and women who took an active part in the presidential elections," he said.

He said certain changes will be made to the law on municipalities. "All these laws meet European standards. But there are some issues that aroused due to the Constitutional changes and they will be regulated by law. For example, municipalities' report before the parliament. All these will be regulated by law," he said.  

Novruzov said opposition parties do not have potential to nominate candidates in all municipalities.

"I recommend heads of the political parties to be nominated for the municipal elections to see whether they will be elected. They have great claims. Therefore, they must first of all test their power in municipal elections," Novruzov said.

The NAP was established by Nakhchivan Parliamentary Speaker Heydar Aliyev in 1992.

President Ilham Aliyev is the party's chairman. The party has ruled the country for 15 years.

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