BAKU: Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s party has won snap parliamentary elections, the electoral commission said Monday, as the opposition denounced widespread violations including multiple voting.
Aliyev called Sunday’s vote ahead of schedule to avoid the poll coinciding with the COP29 climate conference that Baku is to host from November 11 to 22.
None of the elections held in the oil and gas-rich country under Aliyev’s two-decade rule have been recognized as free and fair by international observers.
The electoral commission said Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaijan party won 68 seats in the 125-member legislature.
Another 45 seats were won by independent candidates as well as 12 seats by candidates from nine political parties — all of them widely believed to be pro-government.
Only one opposition candidate from the Republican Alternative Party made it to parliament.
The opposition Musavat party said there were “mass violations” of the rules, including multiple voting.
International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the elections “did not offer voters genuine political alternatives and took place within a legal framework overly restrictive of fundamental freedoms and the media.”
The observers said Monday they were concerned about “intimidation of voters and their ability to cast their vote without fearing retribution.”
The “increase in arrests and detentions of journalists and civil society activists, combined with the restrictive media legal framework, resulted in widespread self-censorship and severely limited the scope for independent journalism,” their statement added.
Baku has faced strong Western criticism for persecuting political opponents and suffocating independent media.
Aliyev, 62, has ruled the ex-Soviet republic with an iron fist since 2003 after the death of his father, Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era Communist leader and former KGB general Heydar Aliyev.
He enjoys widespread popularity due to Azerbaijan’s military victory over Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region for three decades.
Last year, Baku’s troops recaptured the mountainous enclave in a lightning offensive, after which its entire ethnic Armenian population — more than 100,000 people — fled to Armenia.
With power concentrated in the presidency, Azerbaijan’s parliament has a limited role in shaping affairs in the Caspian Sea nation.
Azerbaijan ruling party wins vote as opposition cries foul
https://arab.news/2znv2
Azerbaijan ruling party wins vote as opposition cries foul
- Only one opposition candidate from the Republican Alternative Party made it to parliament
- The opposition Musavat party said there were “mass violations” of the rules, including multiple voting
Ukraine drops NATO goal as Trump envoy sees progress in peace talks
- The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution
BERLIN/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10 percent of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards — shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
