Tazeen Akhtar / Islamabad / Pakistan
The narrowest victory of ruling party of Azerbaijan in the snap parliamentary elections held on 01 Sep 2024 is astonishing for many in and out of the South Caucasian Republic. The New Azerbaijan Party of incumbent President Ilham Aliyev won 68 seats out of total 125. The party had 70 in the outgoing parliament. Thus lost 2 seats. 45 independent candidates won their seats and the rest went to small parties.
The voter turnout was reported at 37.27%. That too is the lowest in the history of elections in the Republic. It was 46.89 in 2020.Turnout in 1995–96 Parliamentary election was 86.05 %, in 2015 it was 55.7 %.
It is seen in the context of Azerbaijan’s glorious victory in second karabakh war in which the Republic succeeded in liberating Armenian occupied territories. Therefore the ruling party should have almost clean swept the election rather maintaining the majority with narrow margin and losing one number.
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The major opposition, Musavat party contested election with 25 candidates that were registered out of 34 intending but not registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party had 12 candidates only.
6.4 million voters were legible to cast their votes in the first parliamentary election since reclaiming Nagorno-Karabakh. 25 political parties were in the run. The ballots feature the names of 991 candidates.
A total of 6,478 polling stations were operational across the republic, for a total of 6,421,960 voters. 51,141 new voters have been registered. As per the decision of the Central Election Commission, 6,516,567 ballot papers were printed. 2,196,771 voters used their right of electing their representatives.
Under the constitution, the election would have been held in November, but Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev decreed it to take place two months early because the capital of Baku will host the UN climate conference Cop29 that same month.
Azerbaijan accredited over 600 international observers from 50 organizations and 69 countries. 112,749 local observers had been registered, including over 65,000 representatives of political parties.
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New Azerbaijan Party will no doubt raise the number when the like minded parties will join it. But losing 2 seats, sticking to a simple majority party and the low turn out is notable as why the ruling party is losing its popularity when the country is moving forward in every field.
The leadership of President Ilham Aliyev has proved equal to the task on many occasions including the second karabakh war as well as the restoration in the newly liberated territories. He has delivered remarkable on international foras. Azerbaijan is the emerging economy in not only South Caucus but among all independent states. Therefore the results and turn out in the election is strange for the observers.
President Ilham Aliyev was elected for another 7 years term in snap presidential election in current year with 4,567,458 votes. It was 92.12 % of total. 4,967,795 votes were cast. Total number of registered votes was 6,478,840. The ratio of polling stood as high as 76.68 %.
Here it is important to note that New Azerbaijan Party has been securing simple majority with narrow margins in the previous elections as well. Later the independent or the like minded parties had been joining to the ruling party. Therefore , many political analysts do not see anything strange in the result. It speaks loud about the fairness of the election. Half of the seats go to other parties and independents. That makes the election process as maximum inclusive and across the board.
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