In Azerbaijan it isn't just the president for life, but the parliament too
Regardless of whether old faces will remain in the parliament, or will be replaced by their children, the upcoming snap parliamentary vote will have little impact on the country's future.
As of July 22, over 1,000 candidates applied to run for a parliamentary seat
Originally published on Global Voices
Collage by Arzu Geybullayeva, created on Canva Pro. Images used with permission.
Ahead of Azerbaijan's snap parliamentary election scheduled for September 1, citizens are scrutinizing the parliamentary candidates and opposition activists are decrying a system that they say prevents free and fair election. Some members of parliament (MPs) have held their seats since 1990, like Eldar Ibrahimov who was elected in September of the same year and has not left since. At the age of 79, he keeps running with no intention to stop. A year behind him, Mikhail Zabelin, 78, has been an MP since 1995. In some other instances, children of former or current MPs are running too, which is not unusual at all according to another member, Elman Nasirov.
The good news: The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) has increased the number of women candidates. In total 33 women lawmakers will be running for a seat in the upcoming election, compared to 26 in 2020. And although the ruling party claims 66 out of 125 candidates are running as party representatives for the first time, it is not entirely true. Some of the candidates have occupied government positions such as heads of administrative districts in the past or were employed in state institutions. For Azerbaijan pundits, employees in these positions are known as de-facto ruling party members. There are some exceptions on the list of 66 candidates who come from backgrounds in media, medical, academic, and non-governmental organizations.
The 2020 elections
The last parliamentary election took place in 2020 with reports of irregularities and electoral violations. The candidates seen as loyal to the ruling New Azerbaijan Party won all but one of the 125 seats in the National Assembly. The last election also took place nine months ahead of the original date. In their preliminary election report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said “the restrictive legislation and political environment prevented genuine competition,” and that “significant procedural violations” in vote counting and tabulation were documented.
It is hard to say this election will be any different. With just two months ahead of the scheduled vote, opposition politicians complained of limited time allocated to organize. And yet, not all of the opposition has decided to boycott the election as it has done in the past. This time, only three political parties are refusing to participate — the Popular Front, the National Council of Democratic Forces, an opposition bloc that includes the Popular Front party, and the 3rd Republic Platform.
In a statement issued on July 13, a representative from the Popular Front said:
In a country where more than 300 political prisoners remain behind bars, the freedom of free assembly is prohibited, the election commissions are under the full control of the government, the voting and vote counting process is impossible to control, the free press is destroyed, the independent local observers are prevented from monitoring the elections, and total absence of a free and competitive election environment, the extraordinary election to the Milli Majlis scheduled for September 1, 2024 should be boycotted.
A similar statement was issued by the National Council on July 16:
The National Council considers the September 1 election not an election, but a cheap show, with a predetermined and scripted outcome reflecting [president] Ilham Aliyev's personal wishes, and considers it's participation unnecessary and harmful from the point of view of national interests.
The statement further lays the blame on President Ilham Aliyev for “directly destroying” the election institute.
The 3rd Republic Platform said in a statement the election was “illegitimate” and that “the unprecedented political repression” environment rules out any chance of holding “free and fair elections.” Two of the platform's members are currently in pretrial custody — Akif Gurbanov and Ruslan Izzatli, facing spurious smuggling charges which have been handed to scores of civic activists since November 2023. As such, all basic freedoms “which are indispensable during an election campaign, have long been erased from the country's political reality,” reads the rest of the statement.
As of July 22, over 1,000 candidates applied to run for a parliamentary seat. S0 far, 700 have been officially registered.
Election in a highly restricted environment
In September 2022, the national parliament began discussing a new law that would make it virtually impossible for new political parties to form in Azerbaijan. The proposed bill had a number of draconian restrictions, ranging from a minimum number of party members to requirements around the party's founding members, funding mechanisms, and more. While some of these and other restrictions were softened, the parliament did approve the revised bill in December 2022, and the law went into effect in January 2023. Months after its adoption, scores of political parties have ceased to exist in Azerbaijan.
Opposition political parties have long struggled in Azerbaijan, faced with arrests, detentions, financial hurdles, or persecution, among other challenges. The ruling YAP has dominated the scene ever since it was founded in 1992. The contested parliamentary election held in March 2020 changed little of the makeup of the national assembly.
Addressing the parliament at the time, President Ilham Aliyev tasked the newly elected members to adopt bills that would help the country reform. Since then, the parliament has approved controversial bills on media and political parties, tightened control over online content, and introduced measures restricting personal rights (new legislation introducing compulsory mediation for couples seeking divorce), to name a few.
Freedom House has ranked Azerbaijan “not free” consistently since 2013, in its annual Freedom in the World report.
For years, Azerbaijan has had one of the lowest international track records on citizens’ rights and freedoms. The recent crackdown on journalists and activists in the country signals that the upcoming snap election will take place in a country where human rights and freedoms remain a major concern.
The recent crackdown also saw the arrest of Anar Mammadli, the director of a prominent local election observation watchdog, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDC).
With scores of independent journalists, politicians, and civic activists behind bars, the transparency of the upcoming election is undoubtedly impossible to guarantee. A recent statement delivered by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs during a meeting organized by the Central Election Commission (CEC) with the chairmen of district election commissions, and other officials representing the Presidential Apparatus, the Constitutional Court, the Prosecutor's office, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs raised additional concerns:
Continuous monitoring of the internet space and social networks will be carried out. Disruptive forces with the intention of preventing the normal conduct of the elections have been identified in time, and action will be taken against them. After the election, the ballots and protocols will be taken by the police. All measures will be taken to prevent illegal actions and violations of public order.
Hearing references to monitoring of social media platforms and measures to be taken, is not surprising, given the role platforms played in documenting election fraud and violations during previous elections, including the most recent snap presidential election on February 7, 2024.
Even at times when there were no elections, there have been plenty of instances when government critics were targeted for sharing posts on social media platforms. The government isn't shy about throttling access to social media platforms and mobile communication applications. The range of tools in its arsenal of intrusive surveillance technology allows the state and its institutions, such as the Ministry of the Interior, to monitor platforms with ease.
Regardless of whether old faces will remain in the parliament, or will be replaced by their children, the outcome of the upcoming snap parliamentary vote will have little impact on the country's future — especially not when this future includes values of democracy and ensures basic freedoms.