Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has announced a snap parliamentary election for September 1 in a move that is not expected to bring significant change to the composition of the legislature. On Friday, Aliyev issued a decree for the dissolution of parliament, which is currently dominated by his New Azerbaijan party. The 62-year-old president, who has been in power since 2003, secured his fifth presidential term in February, which was originally scheduled for 2025. His party, holding 69 of 125 seats in the outgoing parliament, is likely to secure a fresh majority in the oil-rich nation, which has attracted attention from the West, Russia, and Turkey. Azerbaijan, supported by Western energy companies like BP, is part of the OPEC+ agreement aimed at controlling oil output to stabilize global prices. The country heavily relies on revenue from fossil fuels and is set to host the United Nations climate change summit, COP29, from November 11-22. Following a request from lawmakers to avoid scheduling the elections during a major international event, Aliyev agreed to dissolve parliament two months earlier than planned. The decision, approved by the Constitutional Court, elicited criticism from opposition groups. International observers had previously raised concerns about the legitimacy of past elections in Azerbaijan, questioning the electoral process and ballot counting. With power centralized within the presidency, parliament has limited influence on the country's affairs. Although some opposition members in parliament align with Aliyev, critics argue that they have faced persecution, particularly after several journalists and activists were detained ahead of this year's presidential election, which Aliyev won with over 92% of the vote. Aliyev has highlighted the success of a swift military campaign in September that saw Azerbaijan regain control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian forces. The majority of the area's 100,000+ ethnic Armenians fled, and plans are underway to reconstruct and repopulate the region with Azerbaijani residents.