Why was the early presidential election announced in the Republic of Azerbaijan?

According to Webangah News quoted by Tasnim News agency, according to the calendar schedule of the Central Commission The elections of the Republic of Azerbaijan, from today citizens with the right to vote, initiative groups of voters, political parties and blocs of political parties can nominate their candidates for the presidency of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev On December 7, he signed the order to hold early presidential elections in Azerbaijan.

The statement of the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan states: At the meeting of the Central Election Commission on Friday, the election day was decided on February 7. 2024 (18 Bahman 1402).

According to the calendar program published by the commission, people who want to run for the presidency should submit their election documents from December 19, 2023 to submit to the Central Election Commission on January 8, 2024.

22 days have been given to the presidential candidates to conduct pre-election campaigns. Candidates’ campaigns will start on January 15, 2024, and they must stop their campaigns by February 6 at 8:00 a.m. A person has been formed in order to “investigate complaints and effectively guarantee the electoral rights of voters” in relation to the violation of citizens’ right to vote in elections.

According to the Election Law of Azerbaijan, after the official publication of the commission’s decision Elections regarding the determination of the elections, presidential candidates can be nominated.

No official statement has been made yet about the reasons for holding the extraordinary elections.

The last presidential election was held half a year ahead of schedule.

As a result of the referendum held in 2016, the constitution was changed and the presidential term was increased from 5 years to 7 years.

According to the constitution, the presidential term of Ilham Aliyev , the president of this country will end in 2025.

The details of Ilham Aliyev’s February election schedule are not yet clear.

The Central Election Commission said that this institution will hold a meeting in the coming days and inform the media about early elections.

Although some saw this order as expected, others welcomed it with surprise. Since there was no official announcement.

Transition to Parliamentary Republic

Mohman Aliyev, head of Turan Information Agency, says: Elham Aliyev has decided to hold extraordinary presidential elections to prepare for the transition to a parliamentary republic. That is, by speeding up the elections, he guarantees his permanence in power for the next 7 years. The goal is to carry out other internal political reforms in the next 7 years.

Mahman Aliyev believes that a referendum will be held in Azerbaijan, and with this the management system of this country will be rebuilt. I think that later the parliamentary elections will be held earlier in a proportional manner. As a result, in my opinion, a semi-parliamentary and semi-republican system will be created at the initial stage. , may pose a danger to the government. Therefore, the presidential elections will be held first so that this issue will not be paid attention to in the next 7 years.

Furthermore, this analyst of the recent tension with Europe and America as well as increasing pressure on society such as He considers the targeting of investigative journalists, activists and critical media organizations for this reason. This is a preventive pressure on the international community as well as the domestic community so that they cannot seriously interfere in some processes. In other words, the authorities do not want the West and society to put any pressure on the situation in the presidential elections. The country does not exist

Anar Mamdali, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Training Center (SMDT) believes that in the conditions of the announced early presidential elections, the conditions It is not favorable regarding the elections in Azerbaijan.

According to him, in recent years, no steps have been taken in Azerbaijan regarding the reform of the electoral procedure and the change of electoral laws.

Anar Mamdoli believes: the international monitoring board of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, local election organizations, the electoral experience of other political parties, had many recommendations regarding the election law that these things should be done, but the officials of more than 10 They haven’t made any changes regarding the elections for a year.

Mommadi said that I don’t remember that in the last 10 years, representatives of the authorities, the Central Election Commission, the Parliament, the recommendations of international organizations regarding the elections

According to him, there are no democratic conditions for holding elections in Azerbaijan. The pre-election democratic atmosphere in the country has gradually worsened, independent media have become more difficult to operate after the new law was passed, and the situation regarding public forums has not changed for almost 10 years. The law of political parties was approved and the number of parties in the country decreased. Political arrests continue.

In recent weeks, 6 Azeri journalists have been arrested on charges of smuggling and other charges.

In the 2023 list of reporters International Without Borders ranks the Republic of Azerbaijan in 151st place among 180 countries in terms of freedom.

Meanwhile, Hikmat Babaoglu, a representative of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, told reporters: The media policy of the Republic of Azerbaijan is open and transparent. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, calls journalists his assistants.

Will the opposition participate?

People’s Front Party of Azerbaijan, one of the main opposition parties of Azerbaijan, has not yet made a decision to participate in the elections.

Ali Karimli, The head of this party told reporters that they have not yet discussed whether he will present a candidate for the election. According to him, he will discuss and exchange opinions in the party in the coming days

People’s Front Party of Azerbaijan did not participate in the previous presidential election and said that it had boycotted it.

Arif Hajili, head of the Equality party, also told Turan news agency: The Equality party has not yet made a decision about the elections.

Expected surprise

Ahmed Alili, a political analyst, called the decision of early presidential elections an expected surprise.

According to him, after the signing of the tripartite statement between the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia in 2020, a point was raised that 2025 is the date of parliamentary and presidential elections, as well as the date of the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Given that a political decision on the withdrawal of Russian forces from Azerbaijan must be made in May, this means that a large period of 2025 is expected to be spent discussing the issue.

Ahmed Alili says: Therefore, the possibility of changing the time of the parliamentary or presidential elections scheduled for 2025 was predicted at that time.

Observers and analysts believe that Ilham Aliyev’s popularity has increased after the return of the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Farhad Mamedov, an Azerbaijani political analyst, told AFP that the popularity of President Aliyev has always been is high and after the operation in Karabakh in September, it has increased even more.

The political science expert said: He is at the peak of popularity.

Everyone knows that Aliyev will win

Naqif Hamzayev, one of The members of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party believe that such an order was signed due to the need for extraordinary presidential elections. He told Turan news agency: the people of Azerbaijan have always supported President Ilham Aliyev. And the vast majority of people have always voted for Mr. President. The New Azerbaijan Party is the winning party and since its candidate is Mr. Ilham Aliyev, we have always won the elections.

Hamzayev believes: Everyone knows that Ilham Aliyev won the presidential elections. It will happen and it doesn’t matter if these elections are held one year earlier or one year later.

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