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AZERBAIJAN-PARLIAMENT-VOTE
Azerbaijian ruling party leads early poll results: officials
BAKU, Feb 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling
party won a majority of seats in snap parliamentary polls, according to early
results, the election commission said Monday.
Early tallies showed the Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party won 65 seats in the
125-member parliament, the Milli Majlis, after 87 percent of electoral
precincts declared results in the first-past-the-post ballot, said central
election commission chief Mazahir Panahov.
The ruling party — which faced little challenge from the embattled
opposition — promised that Sunday’s election would be democratic, but
opposition parties have accused the government of limiting their ability to
campaign and several parties boycotted the vote.
“The elections were totally falsified,” opposition leader Arif Gadjily of
the Musavat party told AFP after polls closed, denouncing what he claimed was
widespread ballot stuffing and multiple voting.
Electoral commissions are controlled by Aliyev’s party and all of the oil-
rich country’s television stations refused to allocate airtime to the
opposition parties.
With most powers concentrated in the presidency, parliament has a limited
role in the Caspian nation’s political system.
Aliyev has ruled the ex-Soviet state with an iron fist since he was first
elected in 2003, after the death of his father, Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era
Communist leader and former KGB general Heydar Aliyev.
Under the Aliyev dynasty, Baku has faced strong international criticism
for persecuting political opponents and suffocating independent media.
Sunday’s ballot has been monitored by international observers from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1245 hrs