Azerbaijan Holds Snap Parliamentary Elections

More than 37 percent of Azerbaijan’s voters participated in the snap parliamentary elections on Sunday. Approximately 1,000 candidates competed for 125 parliamentary seats, the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) announced.

In total, there are 6.4 million eligible voters in Azerbaijan. The voter turnout in the snap parliamentary elections was 37.27%, according to local media reports.

The exit poll by the Sociological Research Center on Sunday showed the ruling New Azerbaijan Party to have secured 68 seats in the 125-seat Milli Majlis (parliament) of the country.

According to the preliminary results announced by the CEC, the names of 120 members of the 7th convocation of the legislature are already known as of September 2.

The elections were monitored by over 600 international observers from 51 organizations and 69 countries, including those from the OSCE and CIS countries, as well as more than 112,000 local observers.

"Voting was conducted decently. I congratulate the people of Azerbaijan for this democratic success," said the representative from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Jivota Startevich, an observer from the Serbian parliament, stated that the entire election process was peaceful thanks to the professional work of the CEC, which testified to adherence to the rules of democracy.

On June 21, 2024, the Azerbaijani parliament decided to dissolve itself and requested President Aliyev to call for snap elections to the legislature. The parliament deemed it necessary to have a new composition to represent Azerbaijan effectively in parliament diplomacy, particularly after the restoration of the country's territorial integrity, and to make optimal use of the opportunities provided by parliament diplomacy.

The decree to hold the snap parliamentary elections was issued by President Ilham Aliyev on June 28, 2024.

The constitution of Azerbaijan mandates that elections for each term of the Milli Majlis are held every five years, on the first Sunday in November, meaning each parliament has a five-year term.

However, the previous parliamentary election in Azerbaijan, held in February 2020, was also a snap election. A 2016 constitutional amendment allows the term of the 125 deputies elected in snap elections to be less than five years. In these instances, elections are held on the first Sunday in November of the fifth year of the parliament’s term.

Members of parliament are elected for five-year terms through a majority electoral system that is based on universal, equal, and direct elections by citizens of Azerbaijan. The upcoming parliament will be the seventh legislature of its kind since 1995.