Azerbaijan president calls snap parliamentary election

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday called snap legislative elections for September, a technical step to avoid the poll coinciding with the COP29 climate conference that Baku is to host later this year.

Lawmakers last week asked Aliyev to dissolve the country's legislature, the Milli Majlis, and call early polls two months ahead of schedule, citing the need to avoid staging the election during the major international climate conference.

COP29 will run from November 11-22 in the oil-rich nation.

On Friday, Aliyev issued a decree ordering the dissolution of parliament, which is dominated by his Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party.

"Early elections of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan should be scheduled for September 1, 2024," the decree stated.

The elections are widely expected to extend Aliyev's grip on power.

None of the elections held in Azerbaijan under Aliyev's two-decade rule have been recognised as free and fair by international observers.

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 he was first elected in 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.