National Assembly of Azerbaijan - Parliament of Republic of Azerbaijan

Parliament of Republic of Azerbaijan

The first Azerbaijani parliamentary election was held in late 1990 when the Supreme Soviet already held discussions on independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union. The 1995 Parliamentary election was the first to be held after restoration of independence of Azerbaijan.

The assembly is headed by its Speaker assisted by the First Deputy Speaker and two deputy speakers. Ogtay Asadov is the current speaker of the assembly, Ziyafet Asgarov is the First Deputy Speaker and, Bahar Muradova and Valeh Alasgarov are deputy speakers. The work at the parliament is administered by the Parliament Apparatus headed by Sefa Mirzayev, aided by Assistant Manager Elkhan Ahmadov. The Parliament Apparatus is subdivided into Department of State Roster for Territorial Units and Municipalities, and Codification Sector Department.

In the latest 2010 parliamentary elections, the ruling New Azerbaijan Party strengthened its grasp on the legislature, securing a majority of 73 out of 125 seats. The other seats went to nominally independent, government-leaning candidates, and to "soft opposition" parties. The two major opposition parties (Musavat and the Parties of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan) lost their previous 8 seats, thus resulting in an opposition-free Parliament.

The Central Election Commission said turnout was 50.1%, out of a total 4.9 million people eligible to vote. Opposition leaders suggested the low turnout was due to candidate disqualifications by the CEC, and consequent discouragements to vote after their choice of candidate was excluded.

The United States declared that the elections "did not meet international standards", while the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, EU and Council of Europe highlighted some positive aspects, while stating that "the conduct of the elections did not represent significant progress in the process of the country’s democratic development".

The parliament contains 11 parliamentary committees:

• Legal Policies and State Structuring Committee, chaired by MP Ali Huseynov
• Defense and Security Committee, chaired by MP Ziyafet Asgarov
• Economic Policies Committee, chaired by MP Ziyad Samadzade
• Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology, chaired by MP Valeh Alasgarov
• Committee on Agrarian Policies, chaired by MP Eldar Ibrahimov
• Social Policies Committee, chaired by MP Hadi Rajabli
• Committee on Regional Issues, chaired by MP Arif Rahimzade
• Committee on Science and Education, chaired by MP Shamsaddin Hajiyev
• Committee on Cultural Issues, chaired by MP Nizami Jafarov
• International and Interparliamentary Relations Committee, chaired by MP Samad Seyidov
• Human Rights Committee, chaired by MP Rabiyyat Aslanova

In addition to the parliamentary committees, Milli Majlis has a Chamber of Accounting and Toponyms Commission. The parliament publishes its own newspaper Azərbaycan qəzeti (Azerbaijan newspaper) widely distributed around the country.