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Parliamentary elections ahead of COP29

by Florian Binder, Stephan Malerius

Despite many hurdles and a predictable outcome, independent candidates are challenging Aliyev's government.

Since 1995, the ruling party ‘New Azerbaijan’ has won every election with an overwhelming majority. The early parliamentary elections on 1 September are likely to be no exception. While the country has allowed Western election observation missions to take part in previous polls, this time only the OSCE has been invited. Chinese and Russian election observers are welcome. Despite major obstacles, independent candidates are also running. One of them is Shahriyar Majidzadeh, whose constituency of Tartar also includes parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. His slogan is: ‘Peace, climate protection, gender equality and education’.

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COP as a pretext - voting when it suits Aliyev

The next parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan should actually have been held in November, but President Ilham Aliyev decided otherwise and brought them forward to September 1. The reason given was that the original election date would clash with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) organized by Azerbaijan in November.

The Constitutional Court, which is controlled by the regime, confirmed the postponement. This is the third consecutive election that will not take place on the originally planned date. For the opposition, this means a shortened campaign period, which exacerbates the existing challenges in the electoral process.

The full-length publication is only available in german.

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Stephan Malerius

Stephan Malerius

Leiter des Regionalprogramms Politischer Dialog Südkaukasus

stephan.malerius@kas.de +995322459112
+995322459113

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