Azerbaijanis are voting today in an early parliamentary election to elect members to the 125-seat National Assembly. Polls opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) and will close at 7:00 p.m. (1500 GMT), with over 6.4 million registered voters casting their ballots. A total of 990 candidates are competing for seats in this pivotal election.
This election is notable as it is the first time in 30 years that parliamentary elections are being conducted across all of Azerbaijan’s territory, including newly liberated regions from Armenian occupation.
The early election follows President Ilham Aliyev’s decision on June 28 to dissolve the government and set September 1 as the election date. The rescheduling was intended to avoid clashing with the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), scheduled to take place in Baku from November 11-22.
