FILE – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attends a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6, 2024. (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP, File) | Photo Credit: Dmitry Astakhov
Azerbaijan is holding a snap parliamentary election on Sunday (September 1, 2024), the first for the country since it gained full control of a formerly breakaway region in a swift offensive last year.
Previous elections since independence from the Soviet Union have not been considered fully free or fair, and the vote for the Milli Mejlis parliament is not expected to bring significant changes to the body, which is dominated by President Ilham Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan party.
According to the constitution, the election was due to be held in November, but Mr Aliyev ordered it to be held two months earlier because UN climate talks, known as COP29, were due to be held in the capital of Baku that same month.
Mr. Aliyev and his late father, Heydar Aliyev, have ruled Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993, suppressing dissent even as the country of about 10 million people on the shores of the Caspian Sea enjoys growing prosperity from its vast oil and natural gas reserves.
New Azerbaijan has 69 of the 125 seats in parliament, with most of the rest held by smaller pro-government parties or independents. The main opposition Musavat Party fielded 34 candidates for Sunday’s election, but only 25 of them registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party will field 12 candidates.
The election comes less than a year after Azerbaijani forces drove out the remnants of a self-proclaimed government in the Karabakh region, which had been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994. Most of the region’s 120,000 Armenian residents fled the region as a result of the invasion.
The national election commission says 50 organizations will run observer missions. The largest observer team, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is due to present its initial assessment of the election on Monday.