In an attempt to prevent the vote from falling on the same day as Baku’s hosting of the COP29 climate summit later this year, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said on Friday that early parliamentary elections will take place in September.
Citing the need to avoid holding the election during the significant international climate meeting, lawmakers this week urged Aliyev to dissolve the nation’s legislature, the Milli Majlis, and hold early elections two months ahead of schedule.
November 11–22 will be COP29 in the oil-rich country. Aliyev signed an order on Friday dissolving the parliament, which is presided over by his party, Yeni (New) Azerbaijan.
“Early elections of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan should be scheduled for September 1, 2024,” the decree stated.
There is a general expectation that Aliyev would retain power after the elections.
International observers have not recognized any of the elections that took place in Azerbaijan during Aliyev’s two decades in power as free and fair.
Baku has come under heavy fire from the West for stifling independent media and punishing political opponents.
Since his initial election in 2003 following the passing of his father, Heydar Aliyev, the former KGB general and Communist leader of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, Aliyev, 62, has dominated the former Soviet republic with an iron grip.
He is highly regarded since Azerbaijan violently overthrew the Armenian separatist forces that had dominated the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh for thirty years.
Following a quick onslaught by Baku’s forces last year, the entire population of ethnic Armenians living in the mountainous enclave—more than 100,000 people—flew to Armenia.
The parliament’s influence over matters in the Caspian Sea nation is restricted due to the president’s concentration of authority.
