YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. February 8 is campaign silence in Azerbaijan as the country will head to the polling stations to vote in the early election of parliament tomorrow.

1321 candidates are running for the 125 seats in parliament, the country’s Central Electoral Commission had announced earlier.

The decision to call snap elections was made at the November 28 special session of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), which is led by President Ilham Aliyev. The decision for snap elections was explained by saying that the current parliament doesn’t correspond to the political course led by Aliyev and doesn’t participate in the reforms. It was sent to the country’s high court and after approval President Aliyev signed an order on setting snap elections on February 9, 2020, just months ahead of regular scheduled elections.

Aliyev launched a shakeup in his administration from spring 2018, when then-PM Artur Rasizade, 83, was sacked and replaced by 71-year-old Novruz Mamedov, who in turn was sacked in October 2019.  Ali Hasanov was appointed to replace Deputy PM Hajibula Abutalibov.

In the beginning of 2020, Samir Nuriyev was appointed to serve as head of the presidential administration, while Ali Asadov was named the new prime minister.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan