Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) has decided to initiate the dissolution of parliament, saying that ‘the current composition of the legislature does not comply with policies pursued by’ President Ilham Aliyev, the leader of the party.
YAP’s Political Council held a meeting on November 28 and planned to address Aliyev to call early parliamentary elections. The party is expected to give a press conference later on November 28 to explain the reasons behind its decision.
The issue of parliament dissolution will be brought up at a session of the legislature on November 29. Azerbaijan was to hold the next parliamentary elections in November 2020.
The party claimed a landslide victory in the 2015 elections that were boycotted by all of Azerbaijan’s established opposition parties.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) refused to send monitors to the polls after Baku sought to limit their number to a core team of 131 long- and short-term observers.
Aliyev has ruled the energy-rich South Caucasus country of nearly 10 million people since shortly before his father’s death in 2003.
Despite its vast energy resources, the country has seen difficult economic conditions in recent years. Citizens have been hard-hit by rising inflation, unemployment, and the cost of staple goods.
