Municipal elections were held in January 2025. As a result, 682 municipalities were formed, but elections in three municipalities are still considered invalid. I believe this issue should be resolved soon so that the municipal process can be finalized in all districts and regions.
Modern.az-ın məlumatına görə, bunu Milli Məclisin bugünkü plenar iclasında Fazil Mustafa deyib.
According to **Modern.az**, Fazil Mustafa stated this at today's plenary session of the Milli Majlis.
The deputy also noted that the report states that women constitute 39 percent and youth 25 percent. In fact, this issue needs to be viewed from a different perspective. For citizens, the main issue is not how many women or young people are represented in the municipality. When they apply, they consider what powers and responsibilities municipalities have, and whether they yield real results in solving local problems.
“Unfortunately, due to the limited capabilities of municipalities, these applications are often not answered positively, and citizens are forced to rely more on centralized institutions, hoping that they will at least help solve elementary problems at the local level.
Article 144 of our Constitution contains a very important provision regarding municipalities: the adoption and implementation of local economic development programs. I believe that this issue should also be given special attention in this document. In which municipalities have local economic development programs been adopted and implemented? There is almost no information about this. In my opinion, this is the most important work that municipalities should do, and concrete indicators and an indexing mechanism are extremely important here.”
Fazil Mustafa emphasized that previously, when discussing municipalities, issues such as the influence of executive authorities on them, obstacles, and sometimes the use of municipal powers were highlighted. However, executive authorities are now virtually deprived of a number of powers in solving local problems.
“I believe that until a new governance model is fully formed at the local level, either the status and capabilities of municipalities should be expanded, or certain previous powers should be returned to local executive authorities. This is because centralized institutions often struggle to focus on the prompt resolution of problems that can satisfy citizens at the local level. From this perspective, the development of municipalities should be positively evaluated.”
Deputy F. Mustafa also supported the proposal for the creation of a large city municipality:
“Such a principle can be established that if more than thirty municipalities operate in any city, the creation of a large city municipality for that city should be considered. This is because, from the perspective of project implementation, this number is neither excessively large nor inefficient. Although it may be difficult to apply this model in villages, we can at least ensure it for Baku.”
“Even when the issue of transferring cemeteries to municipalities was somewhat resolved in legislation, most municipalities did not want to take it on. The reason was simple: they lacked the means to maintain them. Therefore, we must first think about capabilities and form real mechanisms to increase these capabilities.
For example, the document states that only four new municipal enterprises were established in 2025 – in Jabrayil and some other areas. This is an extremely minimal indicator for municipalities. In a large state like Azerbaijan, the creation of only four enterprises by local self-government bodies within a year cannot be considered satisfactory. Whereas this indicator should be in the tens, or even hundreds.
If we want to solve employment-related problems, we must absolutely expand these capabilities of municipalities and increase the legal force of their decisions and seals. Keeping the activities of all municipalities virtually paralyzed due to criminal incidents that occurred at one time is not the correct approach. The entire system remaining powerless due to past violations cannot be a long-term solution. From this perspective, I believe that if the recommendations made are taken into account, we can raise the quality of local self-government to a higher level in the future” - he concluded.
