PRESIDENT ALIYEV’S PARTY WINS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN AZERBAIJAN: INITIAL RESULTS

Mon 02 September 2024:

Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) won parliamentary elections held Sunday according to initial results, winning the most seats.

Central Election Commission Chairman Mezahir Panahov announced the names of the candidates who received the most votes at a press conference.

According to the initial results, YAP, led by President Ilham Aliyev, won 68 seats in the National Assembly.

A total of 44 independent candidates were elected as members of parliament, while the Civic Solidarity Party won three seats, the Justice, Law and Democracy Party won two seats and the Great Azerbaijan Party, Democratic Reforms Party, Great Creation Party, Republican Alternative Party, Motherland Party, Azerbaijan National Independence Party, National Front Party, and Azerbaijan Democratic Enlightenment Party each won one seat.

In a country with approximately 6,421,000 registered voters, the voter turnout was 37.27%.

Azerbaijanis went to the polls for the seventh time to elect members of the National Assembly. Some 990 candidates competed for 125 seats.

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Background

Aliyev’s father, Haidar, ruled Azerbaijan from 1993 until he died in 2003, then Ilham took over. Both have ruled with a heavy hand, suppressing dissent as the country of almost 10 million people on the shores of the Caspian Sea basked in growing wealth from its huge oil and natural gas reserves.

The ruling party holds 69 of the 125 seats in the parliament, and most of the rest belong to small pro-government parties or independents. The Musavat party, the major opposition formation, put forward 34 election candidates but only 25 were registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party ran 12 candidates.

Under the constitution, the election should have been held this coming November, but Aliyev moved the date up by two months to avoid clashing with the United Nations climate talks, known as COP29, which will take place in the capital, Baku.

The election comes just short of a year after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed in a military operation the Karabakh region, which since 1994 had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia, and forced out its self-declared government. Most of the region’s 120,000 Armenian residents fled in the face of the offensive.

-With Anadolu Agency

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