Moscow, Sept 2, (dpa/GNA) – President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling party, has secured the majority of seats in the snap parliamentary elections, held in Azerbaijan, local media reported on Monday.
Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party won 68 of the 125 seats in parliament, meaning it will retain power.
The result had been expected, especially as the opposition largely declined to field candidates.
Officials put voter turnout of 37.24% and said, that the election took place without incident, but Azerbaijan’s elections are considered neither free nor fair.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has voiced heavy criticism of previous elections in the country, which has a population of around 10 million.
The vote, originally scheduled for November, was brought forward so it would not conflict with the UN Climate Change Conference, being held in Baku that month. The gathering is expected to attract around 80,000 people from around the world.
Aliyev, who has ruled the country with a heavy hand since taking over from his father in 2003, secured a fifth term in office earlier this year.
He capitalized on a wave of patriotic sentiment, following Azerbaijan’s recapture of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September 2023.
The military campaign resulted in more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians, fleeing their homeland and going to Armenia.
Azerbaijan, an oil and gas-rich country on the Caspian Sea, comes under international criticism for human rights violations and the repression of dissent, but remains an important energy supplier to the European Union.
GNA