Early parliamentary elections are taking place in Azerbaijan

JAMnews

Baku

Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan

Today, Azerbaijan is holding snap elections for the Milli Majlis (parliament). Voting began at 8:00 AM across 6,478 polling stations throughout the country, including in areas recently liberated from occupation.

According to the Central Election Commission, 990 candidates are competing for 125 seats in the unicameral parliament. Of these, 305 are from 25 political parties, while the rest are independent candidates. Only the ruling party, Yeni Azerbaijan, has candidates in all electoral districts nationwide. The voter list includes about 7 million people.

Opposition parties Musavat and Republican Alternative (ReAl) are also participating in the elections. However, one of the main opposition parties, the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP), is boycotting the elections. The APFP has boycotted all elections in the country since 2015.

Observers

More than 600 international observers will monitor the elections, including a mission from the OSCE and observers from CIS countries, as well as over 100,000 local observers.

The OSCE mission includes 55 representatives from 20 member countries.

Michael Creed, coordinator of the OSCE short-term observation mission, told reporters, “Favorable conditions have been created for both the campaign and the observation process for today’s snap parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan.” He noted that final results will be posted on the OSCE’s website:

“First and foremost, we are very pleased to be here at the invitation of the Azerbaijani government. I also want to highlight that ideal conditions have been provided for all political parties for campaigning. The work of the districts and election commissions is organized in accordance with the law. After detailed observations at the polling stations, we will compile a final report, which will be published on our official website.”

No PACE observation

The Azerbaijani authorities did not invite the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to observe the elections. Official Baku stated that the only reason for this was that “despite political promises, including from German officials, the mandate of the Azerbaijani delegation in this institution has still not been restored.” Azerbaijan has declared 76 deputies who voted to freeze their powers in PACE as “persona non grata.”

The PACE structure criticized Baku’s decision.

Turnout at 9.92% after 2 hours

As of 10:00 AM, voter turnout was reported at 9.92%. The Central Election Commission (CEC) will release official turnout figures five times throughout the day: at 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 5:00 PM, and 7:00 PM.

According to CEC spokesperson Farid Orujov, out of 6,421,960 eligible voters, 636,842 had cast their ballots by 10:00 AM. This data covers 125 reporting districts out of a total of 6,478 polling stations.

Voting will end at 7:00 PM, with preliminary results expected late on September 1 or early on September 2.

New Parliament for COP29

On June 28, president Ilham Aliyev issued a decree calling for early parliamentary elections. Earlier, the Azerbaijani parliament had requested its dissolution and the scheduling of snap elections for the Milli Majlis. The parliament felt a new assembly was needed to represent Azerbaijan effectively at COP29 and to utilize the opportunities provided by parliamentary diplomacy following the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

The last parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan were also snap elections, held in 2020.