Azeri ruling party retains majority in snap poll for parliament

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev's ruling party won a majority of seats in snap parliamentary polls, the election commission said on Monday, based on early results.

A senior Azeri official said that the new parliament, aside from pursuing economic reforms, would continue the country's cooperation with China in furthering bilateral ties.

Early tallies showed the New Azerbaijan Party won 65 seats in the 125-member parliament, the Milli Majlis, after 87 percent of electoral precincts declared results in the first-past-the-post system, said Mazahir Panahov, chairman of the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan.

Under an initiative by the ruling party, a proposal to dissolve the parliament had been approved by Aliyev late last year. The snap polls were the were the first such elections for the National Assembly.

State officials had said the early polls would help modernize the country's legislative branch and speed up economic reforms.

Hikmat Hajiyev, assistant to the Azerbaijan president and the head of the department of foreign policy affairs in the presidential administration, said the bringing forward of the elections would benefit the country, in helping to spur improvements in the government's structure for carrying out the economic reforms.

The government would also pursue taxation reforms, as well as social initiatives, he said.

Despite the advantages conferred by its oil resources, the South Caucasus country wants to lower unemployment rate and to reduce the impact of fluctuations in the oil price on its economy.

Some voters said they felt things were getting better.

"After personnel changes and the reforms initiated by the president, I have hope for the future and think the country is on the way to improving its situation," said Alia Gafarova, a teacher, after casting her ballot at a polling station in central Baku.

Hajiyev said: "The whole country is expecting a lot from the new faces, maybe some young faces, joining the parliament. They will be able to increase the efficiency of the reforms, to provide better services to the nation and to bring sustainable long-term development to Azerbaijan."

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Hajiyev stressed that the new parliament will not be making changes to the country's foreign policy. It would be the priority policy of the parliament to continue the sound bilateral relations with China.

"Our relations with China－from high-level political dialogue, economic and trade cooperation to energy, education, culture and the humanitarian spheres－will maintain their development after the election," he said.

The Chairman of Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan, Mazahir Panahov, said more than 1,300 candidates from some 20 political parties had competed for the 125 parliamentary seats.

Nearly 5.2 million voters cast their votes at more than 5,500 polling stations in the country.

The elections are the sixth parliamentary polls in Azerbaijan since the country regained its independence in 1991.

Before the decision for the snap elections, a parliamentary election had been scheduled for November 2020.