Polls have opened in Azerbaijan for a snap parliamentary election, the first since it regained full control of the former breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive last year against ethnic Armenian forces.

Voting began at 8am (04:00 GMT) on Sunday and will close at 7pm (15:00 GMT). More than 6.4 million people are registered to vote in the oil-rich Central Asian nation. Voting is being held in Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time in 30 years.

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Previous elections since independence from the Soviet Union have not been regarded as fully free or fair, and the vote for the Milli Mejlis, the National Assembly, is not expected to bring significant changes to the body dominated by President Ilham Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party.

Aliyev is often accused of ruling heavy-handedly, suppressing dissent in the country of almost 10 million people on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan has seen economic growth under his leadership, boosted by significant oil and natural gas exports. The 62-year-old leader succeeded his father, Heydar Aliyev, who was president between 1993 and 2003.

The governing party holds 69 of the 125 seats in the outgoing parliament, and most of the rest belong to small pro-government parties or independents.

Women line up to cast ballots at a polling station in Baku, Azerbaijan on Sunday, September 1, 2024. [AP Photo]

The Musavat Party, a major opposition formation, put forth 34 candidates for Sunday’s election, but only 25 of them were registered. Another opposition party Republican Alternative has fielded 12 candidates.

Under the constitution, the election was due in November, but Aliyev issued a decree advancing the election as Baku would be hosting the United Nations climate talks, COP29.

The election comes just short of a year after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994, in a military operation and forced out its self-declared government. Most of the region’s 120,000 Armenian residents fled in the face of the offensive.

The country’s Central Election Commission says 50 organisations have been conducting observer missions. The largest observer contingent, from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, is scheduled to present its preliminary assessment of the election on Monday.