European Observer Mission: Azerbaijan's Elections Fall Short of 'Democratic Standards'

Preliminary results of the vote count indicate that the ruling party of Azerbaijan has maintained its majority in the early parliamentary elections held on Sunday. According to the initial results from the Central Election Commission reported by TASS, the party of President Ilham Aliyev is on track to secure 68 out of 126 parliamentary seats. This party had 69 seats in the previous parliament, known as the 'National Assembly'. The observer mission sent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe criticized the recent elections in Azerbaijan, stating they fall significantly short of 'democratic standards'. The OSCE stated in a press release: 'The early parliamentary elections held on September 1 took place in a restrictive political and legal environment, which does not allow for genuine pluralism and resulted in a non-competitive race.' According to Mazahir Panahov, the head of the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan, only over 2 million people cast their votes in the country, and the voter turnout at the time of the polling stations' closure reached 37.3 percent. This was the first voting in the country since its rapid attack on the Armenian-populated separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh and its recapture last year. The general elections in Azerbaijan were held; no significant changes in the parliament are expected. Aliyev warned about the 'catastrophic' decline in the level of the Caspian Sea; northern Iranian ports are at risk of becoming 'unused'. An Iranian Foreign Ministry official announced the 'imminent' reopening of the Azerbaijani embassy. The venue for the concert of 'Damla', a female singer from Azerbaijan, was closed by the order of the Ardabil prosecutor's office.