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bne March 2018 Eurasia I 49
media users across Iran and the Rouhani Administration to demand an official apology by Samsung as well as summoning the South Korean Ambassador to the foreign ministry to request an official explanation.
Travellers in for a hit
Joshaghani intimated that people visit- ing Iran would have a grace period of a month before having to register their phones officially.
Iran is also set to charge Iranian nationals returning to the country with phones purchased abroad with an 18% levy at airports. The phones must also be registered with customs and the CRA.
He said, “If I were afraid that the scheme would fail, I would have never pushed ahead with it as a I have.”
The official noted, “The important thing about systems such as the mobile registry is the possibility of stopping unforeseen problems, and we have a professional third-party contractor who will fix problems.”
Industry support
Director of the Tehran Telecoms Union, Mehdi Mohebi, who is backing the move, said: “All newly activated Google, BlackBerry and Motorola phones
have been screened since December 5, with smuggled handsets going offline next week.”
December last year saw some 25,000 smuggled Apple iPhones disconnected from Iran’s three mobile networks, the union official added. However, reports from traders suggested that older iPhones 5s had somehow slipped under the radar. Apple currently has an 11% share of the Iranian smartphone market, with some 6mn Iranians owning the banned brand.
The third phase of the mobile blocking scheme will target more popular brands, namely LG, Samsung and Huawei. Together, they account for more than 80% of local mobile device sales.
Azerbaijan's President Aliyev to run for fourth term in October
bne intellinews
Azerbaijan's ruling party, New Azerbaijan, has nominated sitting president Ilham Aliyev as its candidate for the presidential election to take place
in October.
The nomination is of course a formality as the three-time president faces little competition, having jailed, harassed and driven into exile many members of the opposition. Aliyev, 57, is the son of Azerbaijan's first president, Heydar Aliyev, whom he replaced at the helm of the country in 2003 following his father's death.
In order to accommodate Ilham Aliyev's long stint in office, the constitution was amended in 2009 to allow a president to serve more than two terms in power, and then again in 2016, to extend the presidential term from five to seven years. The latter amendment takes effect this year.
In February 2017, Aliyev appointed his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, as first vice president, putting her next in line to the president. This was also made possible by the constitutional referendum the previous year, which increased the president's powers to decide on his line of succession.
Aliyev customarily wins elections with high percentages of the vote, in part because he enjoys popularity in Azerbaijan, and in part because the weakened political opposition parties have failed to come together. In addition, opposition parties face draconic censorship aimed at preventing them truly engaging with the general public. Media outlets are frequently banned from featuring them, and their rallies often end with police arrests of peaceful demonstrators.
Nevertheless, one opposition party – the Classical Popular Front (CPFPA)
– has named its candidate for the election in the person of Miramakhmud Miralioglu, its 60-year-old chairman. In an interview with the Caucasian Knot, Miralioglu said that "despite the absence of even minimal conditions for democratic elections in the country, our party decided to take part in the campaign. We believe that the participation of the opposition in the election should activate the electorate".
The election will take place on October 17.
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