Azerbaijan holds municipal elections, only one opposition party secures seats

Azerbaijan holds municipal elections only one opp 679ba86eaceca

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Azerbaijan has held its municipal elections, with only one opposition group, the REAL Party, securing seats in local councils, while the largest of Azerbaijan’s opposition groups, the Popular Front Party, boycotted the elections.

The elections were held on Wednesday.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that more than 8,000 local council members were elected across almost 700 municipalities in the country. According to them, 6,326,764 Azerbaijanis took to polling stations, representing a 31.45% voter turnout.

Two days before the elections, Mazahir Panahov, the chair of the CEC, said that 8,424 candidates running in the elections were members of political parties, while 7,588 were running as independents.

He additionally disclosed that 31% of the registered candidates were women, 82% had higher education, and 41% were aged between 21–35.

Natig Jafarli, the chair of the REAL Party, told OC Media that his party secured two seats in Absheron, one in Ganja, one in Imishli, and one in Gakh.

Jafarli praised his party’s performance in the elections, stating that while only securing five seats across four local governments was a small achievement, ‘big victories are achieved by small steps’.

Another opposition party, Musavat, criticised the elections and claimed that voter fraud was commonplace throughout.

‘It has become common for the same voters to vote at different polling stations, the carousel operation, and throwing ballots into ballot boxes’, the party said in a statement.

‘Numerous videos demonstrating election fraud are being circulated on social networks. Observers from the Musavat party who recorded violations during the elections, especially journalists filming at polling stations, have faced pressure’.

Musavat added that ‘none of the nearly 30 candidates nominated by the regional organisations of the Musavat party were provided with a protocol for the voting results. Carbonised protocols were not posted at polling stations and in most polling stations, protocols on the voting results were not compiled at all’.

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The party went on to say that the elections failed to ‘meet international standards and the authorities’ commitments to international organisations of which the Azerbaijani state is a member’.

‘The elections were not free and fair and did not express the will of the population’, the Musavat said, adding that the party demands the annulment of the election results and the ‘implementation of reforms that will ensure the creation of a legal state and a democratic society in the country, including electoral reform, and the holding of new elections’.

Journalists observing the elections have also faced obstacles and pressure from the authorities; Ahmad Mammadli, a pro-democracy activist, who was an observer in the Nasimi–Sabail constituency 23 in voting station #32 published a video saying that he had received death threats if he did not behave ‘smartly’.

Municipal elections are scheduled to be held in the last month of the year, every five years. The timing of last year’s vote was pushed back, ostensibly due to the country hosting the COP29 UN climate summit in November. In early December 2024, Mazahir Panahov announced that Azerbaijan was not inviting foreign observers to monitor the municipal elections, but ‘will accept anyone’ who offers to monitor the voting process.

‘Of course, we will accept anyone who addresses us with an appeal. But we ourselves will not invite observers from abroad. Because municipal elections are an internal matter’, he said.

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