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Azerbaijan Legislative Politics
Parliamentary elections were held in September 1990, under a
state of martial law
(see After
Communist Rule
, this ch.). The
opposition coalition led by the APF gained only about forty seats
in the 350-seat Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet. Communists received
the balance of seats in what the APF and others described as
fraudulent elections. Most would-be international observers had
been expelled from the republic by September. Bowing to massive
popular demonstrations calling for the dissolution of the
communist-dominated Supreme Soviet and concerted pressure by the
APF and other oppositionists, in November 1991 the Azerbaijani
Supreme Soviet voted to establish a fifty-deputy National
Council, or Melli-Majlis. This council, a "mini-legislature" that
met in continuous session, was divided equally between former
communists and the opposition. Because of the Supreme Soviet's
complicity in the effort to bring Mutalibov back to power in May
1992, the APF forced the Supreme Soviet to convene, elect APF
official Isa Gambarov as acting president, dissolve itself, and
cede its power to the Melli-Majlis pending new parliamentary
elections.
Having repeatedly postponed the elections, the Melli-Majlis
remained the sole legislative authority within Azerbaijan in
early 1994. The Melli-Majlis proved generally amenable to
Elchibey's policies, but in 1993 the worsening military situation
in Nagorno-Karabakh brought increasing criticism. In his first
six months as president, Aliyev gained support from the MelliMajlis for most of his proposals.
Data as of March 1994
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