Azerbaijan holds snap parliamentary election amid recent territorial gains

Azerbaijan on Sunday is holding a snap parliamentary election that is the first for the country since it regained full control of a former breakaway territory in a lightning offensive last year.

Previous elections since independence from the Soviet Union have not been regarded as fully free or fair, and the vote for the Milli Mejlis parliament is not expected to bring significant changes to the body that is dominated by the New Azerbaijan party of President Ilham Aliyev.

Under the constitution, the election would have been held in November, but Aliyev decreed it to take place two months early because the capital of Baku will host United Nations climate talks known as COP29 that same month.

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Aliyev and his late father, Heydar Aliyev, have led Azerbaijan with their heavy-handed rule since 1993, 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.

New Azerbaijan 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 forth 34 candidates for Sunday’s election but only 25 of them were registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party will run 12 candidates.

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

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The national election commission says 50 organizations will conduct observer missions. The largest observer contingent, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is scheduled to present its preliminary assessment of the election on Monday.