Azerbaijan ruling party wins vote as opposition cries foul

BAKU: Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev´s party has won snap parliamentary elections, the electoral commission said on Monday, as the opposition denounced widespread violations including multiple voting.

Aliyev called Sunday´s vote ahead of schedule to avoid having it coincide with the COP29 climate conference that Baku is to host from November 11 to 22. None of the elections held in the oil and gas-rich country under Aliyev´s two-decade rule have been recognised as free and fair by international observers.

The electoral commission said Aliyev´s Yeni Azerbaijan party won 68 seats in the 125-member legislature. Another 45 seats were won by independent candidates widely believed to be pro-government, and 11 were obtained by nine political parties also deemed to support Aliyev´s administration.

Only one opposition candidate, from the Republican Alternative Party, made it to parliament. The opposition Musavat party said there were “mass violations” of the rules, including multiple voting.

International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the elections “did not offer voters genuine political alternatives and took place within a legal framework overly restrictive of fundamental freedoms and the media”.