Azerbaijan to hold snap parliamentary elections on September 1
Al Jazeera
President Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party is expected to win a new majority in the oil-rich country’s legislature.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has called snap parliamentary elections for September 1 that are unlikely to radically change the legislature’s makeup.
On Friday, Aliyev issued a decree ordering the dissolution of parliament, which is dominated by his New Azerbaijan party.
The 62-year-old president, who has been in power since 2003, won a fifth presidential term in February. That vote was set to be held in 2025.
His party, which holds 69 of 125 seats in the outgoing parliament, is expected to win a new majority in the oil-rich country, which has been courted by the West, Russia and Turkey.
Western energy firms such as BP operate in Azerbaijan, which is party to the OPEC+ pact between the OPEC oil producers’ club and other key exporters such as Russia to restrict output to support world prices.
