The first meeting of the Central Election Commission in its new composition was held in recent days. At the meeting, Mazahir Panahov was re-elected as the Chairman of the Commission.
Modern.az reports that only two people have led this organization since the period of independence. The first chairman, Jafar Valiyev, led the organization for 8 years, and Mazahir Panahov for 26 years.
The first head of the Central Election Commission was Jafar Valiyev from 1992-2000.
Jafar Valiyev was born on November 12, 1930, in Baku. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University in 1953 and is a lawyer by profession.
After receiving higher education, until 1960, he worked as a senior consultant, referent, assistant to the deputy chairman, and deputy head of the culture department in the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR. From 1960-1962, he worked as the deputy head of the administrative bodies department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan.
Later, Jafar Valiyev worked as the first deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1962-1971, head of the administrative bodies department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan from 1971-1978, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1978-1987, head of the department at the Institute of National Economy Management under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1987-1992, chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1992-2000, and chairman of the Economic Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 2000-2005. Jafar Valiyev was also elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan for several convocations.
He is a Candidate of Legal Sciences (1963), Professor (1993), Doctor of Law of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Creative Arts (1991), Honored Lawyer of Azerbaijan (1990), and Lieutenant General of Internal Service. Valiyev worked for some time in the private sector as the president of the "Messenat Holding Group of Companies".
Jafar Valiyev was awarded the "Shokhrat" Order by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated November 11, 2000, and the "Istiglal" Order by the Order dated November 11, 2005. Jafar Valiyev passed away in Baku on June 1, 2012, at the age of 70.
Mazahir Panahov, whose chairmanship was re-confirmed yesterday, is 75 years old. In 1967, he entered the Faculty of Physics of Azerbaijan State University and graduated from the university with honors in 1972.
From 1971-1972, he was a diploma student at the A. F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, and from 1973-1976, he was a postgraduate student. He has been a Candidate of Sciences since 1979 and a Doctor of Sciences since 1992. From 1977 to 1993, he worked as a teacher, senior teacher, and associate professor at Baku State University. From 1993, he was a professor at the Department of "General Physics and Methods of Teaching Physics" at Baku State University, and from 1996 to 2019, he was the head of that department.
From 1982-1983, he conducted scientific research at the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in Great Britain. From 1998-2000, he worked as the head of the International Relations Department of the CEC. On May 19, 2000, he was appointed a member of the CEC by the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, national leader Heydar Aliyev, and on the same day, he was elected chairman of the Commission.
