Azerbaijan holds a parliamentary election expected to retain the presidential party’s dominance

Polls closed Sunday evening in Azerbaijan’s snap parliamentary election, the first since it regained full control of a former breakaway territory in a lightning offensive last year.

Previous elections since independence from the Soviet Union in the 1990s have not been regarded as fully free or fair, and the vote for the Milli Mejlis parliament is not expected to bring significant changes to the body dominated by President Ilham Aliyev ‘s New Azerbaijan party.

Aliyev’s father, Haidar, ruled Azerbaijan from 1993 until he died in 2003, then Ilham took over. Both have ruled with a heavy hand, suppressing dissent as the country of almost 10 million people on the shores of the Caspian Sea basked in growing wealth from its huge oil and natural gas reserves.

The ruling party holds 69 of the 125 seats in the parliament, and most of the rest belong to small pro-government parties or independents. The Musavat party, the major opposition formation, put forward 34 election candidates but only 25 were registered. The Republican Alternative opposition party ran 12 candidates.

Under the constitution, the election should have been held this coming November, but Aliyev moved the date up by two months to avoid clashing with the United Nations climate talks, known as COP29, which will take place in the capital, Baku.

The election comes just short of a year after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed in a military operation the Karabakh region, which since 1994 had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia, and forced out its self-declared government. Most of the region’s 120,000 Armenian residents fled in the face of the offensive.

Azerbaijan’s national election commission said 50 organizations would conduct observer missions. The largest observer contingent, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is scheduled to present its preliminary assessment on Monday.