Azerbaijan has recently concluded another round of elections. The snap parliamentary elections, held on September 1, have ended. These were the second snap elections within a year, following the early presidential elections in February this year.
The elections were conducted without much excitement, with low voter turnout and no remarkable candidate campaigns. After the elections, leaders of several parties announced their resignations as a form of protest.
Why were such elections necessary? What is the Azerbaijani government trying to achieve by holding these elections, especially ahead of COP29, which will take place in Azerbaijan, while simultaneously increasing the number of political prisoners?
These and other questions were discussed in the program "Complex Question" by political commentator Zardusht Alizade.
According to him, in Azerbaijan, there is only one player in domestic politics — the government. There is no other side, no other player — the population, represented by parties and society, essentially does not exist because their weight categories are vastly different.
Alizade noted that the reason the Azerbaijani authorities do not heed the opinion of the international community is due to their awareness of its duplicity, corruption, and tendency to betray.
He pointed out that the international community, organizations, and lawmakers have little understanding of Azerbaijan. They are unaware of whether the Azerbaijani people have democratic rights or if true representatives of the people are in the Azerbaijani parliament. Foreign countries are indifferent to the Azerbaijani people, and Azerbaijan is ranked around 100th or even 150th on the list of global policy priorities.
Moreover, the Azerbaijani public knows that international organizations are hypocritical, deceitful, and incapable of being objective.
Therefore, no one pays attention to their opinions. Twenty-five years of the Karabakh saga have shown that Western organizations are biased.
When asked why elections are held in Azerbaijan, the expert noted that Azerbaijan has declared itself a republic, not a sultanate, and thus formalities must be observed.
The expert also stated that if the Azerbaijani people truly wanted to change the situation, they would participate in the elections rather than show indifference.
"Only about 14% of eligible voters participated in the parliamentary elections," emphasized Alizade.
Difficult question
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According to the Electoral Code, the term of municipal authorities in Azerbaijan is five years and expires on December 23 of this year. Voting should be announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) 60 days before the elections. However, although only 52 days remain until the election date, the CEC has not issued any statements.
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In recent days, several criminal cases have been initiated regarding some businesses engaged in foreign economic activities that have not returned funds in the appropriate currency to Azerbaijan. Reports indicate that several officials have faced criminal charges due to substantial evidence of agreements between domestic legal entities and foreign companies, with large sums of revenue generated from these activities not being returned to authorized bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
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After the parliamentary elections held in Georgia on October 26, President Salome Zourabichvili and opposition parties stated that the elections were rigged and did not recognize the results. The President called on the people to gather in front of parliament on October 28.
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On October 24, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met during the 16th BRICS Summit held in Kazan, Russia.
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