Ruling New Azerbaijan Party wins general election with 65 seats

BAKU, Azerbaijan—The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) led by President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan gained 65 of the total 125 seats in the single-chamber parliament of the country.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) headed by Mazahir Panahov announced the partial results early on February 10 after 87% of the electoral precincts declared returns.

Nominally independent candidates, most of whom support YAP's policies, took almost all the rest of the seats in the February 9 election.

The CEC put the turnout at 47.81 percent, nearly eight percentage points less than in the previous parliamentary elections, according to local reports.

The younger generation enthusiastically took part in the election after President Ilham Aliyev had signed a decree to dissolve the existing parliament in December 2019. Registered candiates ran for the parliament and about 5.2 million registered voters cast their votes in over 5,500 polling stations in the country. Voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time (0400GMT) and continued until 7:00 p.m. (1500GMT).

The elections were organized by district election commissions. Approximately 1,300 candidates registered to compete and 5.3million voters participated in the election. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbarjian encouraged the new generation to take part in the election.

As a result, over 90% of the voters were below the age of 40 and one-fifth of the candidates were women which was a huge increase compared with the previous elections. The Central Electoral Commission announced that the purpose of the election was to focus on economic reforms by pushing out the old style and provide top positions to younger professional leaders.

The Korea Post met with several winners after the election. Nigar Arpadarai (Independent), a former attorney stated she would sacrifice herself for women's social rights and welfare. Kamal Jafarov (Ruling party) said he would focus on interacting with intellectuals from all over the world and contribute himself for the modernization of Azerbaijan. Jafarov is the the youngest winner from this election who studied abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom in his childhood.

Despite concerns from foreign correspondents, critics say the election was finished without any difficulties. Critics added 1,314 candidates were running for 125 seats in parliament and the election was quite successful even with some obstacles such as lack of time and promotion.

According to critics, this was the most successful election after the legislature was dissolved by a presidential decree in December 2019.