Azerbaijan’s ruling party wins parliamentary elections, preliminary results show

September 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) has won the parliamentary elections held early on Sunday with a turnout of 37.27 percent, according to preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

“I repeat once again that these are the figures for 91 percent of the 6,478 polling stations included in the Central Election Commission, i.e. 5,895 polling stations, and the preliminary results. The voter turnout across the country was 37.27 percent,” CEC head Mazahir Panahov was quoted as saying by Azerbaijan’s Azertac news agency.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced at the end of June the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early elections due to possible organisational problems resulting from the holding of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku on those dates.

Article 84 of Azerbaijan’s constitution states that parliamentary elections must be held on the first Sunday in November every five years, but the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the election would be in line with Article 98.1, paving the way for the move forward.

The elections will take place after Aliyev won a fifth term in office in February’s presidential election, winning more than 92 percent of the vote. The elections, scheduled for 2025, were brought forward by order of the president himself.

The presidential election was Azerbaijan’s first since the reintegration of the Karabakh region after more than three decades under the control of Armenian separatists. Aliyev came to power in 2003 after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, who was president from 1993 to 2003.