CEC conducted its session headed by Mr. Mazahir Panahov on September 17, 2008.

Chairman of the Commission stated that pre-election campaign of the persons whose candidacies to presidency of the Republic of Azerbaijan have been registered starts from date. Pursuant to Article 77.2 of Election Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, these candidates shall be allocated with free airtime by Public TV and Radio. In accordance with Article 189.2 of Election Code, free airtime should be considered for the registered candidates to presidency to conduct discussions, round tables and other similar campaign activities. Free airtime for at least 3 hours is implied by law for candidates during the week at public TV and radio. It was reached an agreement during discussions by the leadership of Public TV and Radio Company that airtime for 6 hours shall be allocated during the week by being 3 hours at both TV and radio. Round tables should be aired at radio on the I, III, V days of the week and at TV on II, IV, VI days of the week. Each candidate should be allocated with 8 minutes 35 seconds on round tables. Later, "Lottery commission” conducted lottery in the aim of airtime division allocated on free base by Public TV and Radio Company. Lottery results were tabulated. At the CEC session, members of OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, representatives of OSCE Baku office, Azerbaijan representation of Secretary General of European Council, the USA embassy, IFES, National Democracy Institute and mass media also took part.