Azerbaijan holds municipal elections

Municipal elections in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is holding municipal elections today, with polling stations opening at 08:00.

More than 16,000 candidates are vying for over 8,000 seats across nearly 700 municipalities. Voting is taking place at almost 6,000 polling stations in 118 electoral districts.

Nearly six million voters are eligible to take part, with over 70,000 local observers monitoring the process. No international observers are present.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cast his vote in Baku’s Sabail District Electoral Constituency No. 7.

Polls will close at 19:00.

Municipal elections were originally due to take place by 23 December last year. However, without explanation, the date was pushed back by a month to 29 January 2025—beyond the legally mandated timeframe.

Lacklustre elections

Unlike the last municipal elections on 23 December 2019, this year’s vote appears subdued. Azerbaijani social media users note the absence of the excitement seen in previous elections.

In 2019, over 40,000 candidates competed for 15,156 seats across 1,606 municipalities.

That election saw an unusually high number of independent candidates, including former political prisoners, opposition figures, activists, and feminists. Although only one ultimately won, analysts say the 2019 vote remains the most vibrant municipal election in Azerbaijan’s history.

Experts argue that Azerbaijan’s municipal elections often feel lacklustre because local governments hold little real power. “Municipal bodies are mostly seen as an extension of the executive branch rather than independent institutions,”they note.

Azerbaijan held its first municipal elections in 1999, and they have taken place every five years since.

Expert opinion

Samir Aliyev, a member of the Independent Experts Group at the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, believes voter apathy stems from a lack of awareness. “People have little interest in municipal elections because they don’t know who they are voting for or why,” he says.

“”For the sixth time, the population will elect municipal members—people they trust and rely on. I know this statement may seem strange to you. In fact, it is a normal and logical statement, but not for Azerbaijan.

Because, first of all, people do not know who they are voting for; they do not know them, they have no information. Secondly, they do not even know why they are making their choice. Even if the fault does not lie with the municipal structures themselves, the widespread question in society—’Why do we need municipalities?’—is a reflection of the public’s attitude toward local self-government.

The preamble of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which Azerbaijan has also joined, states that local self-government bodies constitute one of the foundations of a democratic system, and the existence of local self-government bodies with real power ensures effective and citizen-centered governance.

Unfortunately, in 25 years of their existence, municipalities in our country have not achieved the goals they set for themselves. Because they have neither powers nor financial resources. Even the status of municipalities is unclear.

Over the past 25 years, the already meager powers of municipal structures have been further reduced, and their limited financial resources have been cut even more.

Instead of granting municipalities powers, the central government saw the solution in merging them, and, as expected, the two previous merger decisions had no effect. There is no reason to expect significant results from the third one either. Because merging is a technical process—real powers must stand behind it,” he notes.

The last amendments to the laws “On the Creation of New Municipalities by Merging Municipalities in the Republic of Azerbaijan”, “On Municipal Territories and Lands”, as well as the “List of Municipalities in the Republic of Azerbaijan”, were introduced in April 2024. As a result of these changes, the total number of municipalities in the country has been reduced by more than half since the last elections due to the merging of smaller municipalities.

According to Samir Aliyev, to restore trust in municipalities, their powers and financial capabilities must be expanded:

“If we look around, we can see how strong municipalities can be. Local self-government bodies in Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, and even Russia have the necessary powers and financial resources.

Today, the elections will not be felt, and real participation will be at a zero level. To restore people’s trust in municipal structures, their powers must be expanded. This can be achieved through reforms aimed at counteracting centralization.”