Politics of Azerbaijan

The politics of Azerbaijan take place in an authoritarian system where elections are not free and fair, political opponents are repressed, civil rights are limited, human rights abuses are widespread, corruption is rampant, and power is concentrated in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev and his extended family.

Checks and balances are nominally ensured by the legislature (Azerbaijan's National Assembly) and the Judiciary but both institutions are in practice firmly controlled by the executive.

Azerbaijan declared its independence from the former Soviet Union on August 30, 1991, with Ayaz Mutalibov, former First Secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party, becoming the country's first President.

Following a massacre of Azerbaijanis at Khojali in Nagorno-Karabakh in March 1992, Mutalibov resigned and the country experienced a period of political fragility.

The old guard returned Mutalibov to power in May 1992, but less than a week later his efforts to suspend scheduled presidential elections and ban all political activity prompted the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (PFP) to organize a resistance movement and take power.

Among its reforms, the PFP dissolved the predominantly Communist Supreme Soviet and transferred its functions to the 50-member upper house of the legislature, the National Council.

Elections in June 1992 resulted in the selection of PFP leader Abulfaz Elchibey as the country's second president.

The National Council conferred presidential powers upon its new speaker, Heydar Aliyev, former First Secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party (1969–81) and later a member of the Soviet Union's Politburo, the KGB, and USSR Deputy Prime Minister (until 1987).

Elchibey was formally deposed by a national referendum in August 1993, and Aliyev was elected to a 5-year term as President in October with only token opposition.

In the October 2003 presidential elections, İlham Aliyev was the winner and was sworn in as president at the end of the same month, and Rasizade was appointed premier again.

President Ilham Aliyev and his New Azerbaijan Party keep an iron grip on power through fraudulent votes; international observers have never deemed an election in the country to be free and fair.

In April 2018, President Ilham Aliyev secured his fourth consecutive term in the election that was boycotted by the main opposition parties as fraudulent.

The President in Azerbaijan is directly elected for a 7-year term, with the candidate required to have the right to vote, residing in Azerbaijani territory for more than 10 years, possess a higher education, lack citizenship or liabilities to the foreign states, and not convicted for a serious crime.

The President could be removed by the National Assembly following conviction by the Supreme Court, if the decision is adopted by three-quarters majority of the deputies.

Every citizen of at least 25 years of age may be elected with certain exceptions (i.e. dual citizenship, liabilities towards a foreign state, holding a position in the executive or judicial branches of power, remunerated activities - with certain exceptions, such as members of religious professions, incapacity confirmed by court, conviction for a serious crime or serving a sentence).

[13] Every year, the National Assembly of the Republic of Azerbaijan holds two regular, spring and autumn, sessions.

Extraordinary sessions are convened by its Speaker at the request of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan or 42 deputies of the National Assembly.

The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a constituent part of Azerbaijan with its own elected parliament (the Supreme Council) consisting of 45 deputies.

The powers of the Cabinet include drafting the state budget and presenting it to the president, executing the budget, implementing state economic and social programs, securing financial and credit and monetary policy, managing ministries and other executive bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Although the Azerbaijan constitution nominally guarantees judicial independence, the executive firmly controls judges and prosecutors.

The judicial system and legal proceedings are determined by law, and the establishment of extraordinary courts is prohibited.

[21] Azerbaijan is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO's Partnership for Peace, Euro-Atlantic Partnership, World Health Organization, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Council of Europe, CFE Treaty, the Community of Democracies, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Armenia supports ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in the longstanding and very bitter separatist conflict against the Azerbaijani Government; the two countries are still at war, a cease-fire has been in place since 1994 but the fire has been renewed on 27 September 2020.

Azerbaijan was elected as one of the members of the newly established Human Rights Council (HRC) by the General Assembly on May 9, 2006.