FILE – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev attends a gathering with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6, 2024. (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Authorities Pool Photograph through AP, File) | Photograph credit score: DMITRY ASTAKHOV
Azerbaijan will maintain early parliamentary elections on Sunday (1 September 2024), the primary within the nation because it regained full management of a former separatist territory in a lightning offensive final 12 months.
Earlier elections since independence from the Soviet Union haven’t been thought of fully free or honest, and the vote for the Milli Mejlis parliament is just not anticipated to convey vital adjustments to the physique which is dominated by President Ilham Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan celebration.
Underneath the structure, the elections had been to have been held in November, however Aliyev decreed they need to be held two months earlier as a result of the capital, Baku, will host the United Nations local weather talks, often called COP29, that very same month.
Mr. Aliyev and his late father, Heydar Aliyev, have dominated Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993, suppressing dissent because the nation of practically 10 million individuals on the Caspian Sea loved rising wealth from its huge oil and pure fuel reserves.
The New Azerbaijan Get together has 69 of the 125 seats in parliament, with many of the relaxation belonging to smaller pro-government events or independents. The principle opposition Musavat celebration fielded 34 candidates for Sunday’s election, however solely 25 of them had been registered. The opposition Republican Various celebration will area 12 candidates.
The elections got here slightly below a 12 months after Azerbaijani forces defeated the remnants of the self-proclaimed authorities within the Karabakh area, which had been below the management of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994. A lot of the area’s 120,000 Armenian residents fled the world within the face of the offensive.
The nationwide electoral fee has introduced that fifty organisations will perform commentary missions. The biggest contingent, from the Organisation for Safety and Cooperation in Europe, is predicted to current its preliminary evaluation of the elections on Monday.
