Azerbaijan votes amid fears

Azeri people vote at a polling station in a staunchly Islamic district of Nardaran, some 20 km from Baku, during the parliamentary election yesterday. The former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan went to the polls yesterday to elect its 125-seat parliament, the Milli Mejlis, for a five-year mandate. The election is seen in the West as a key test of democracy for the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic, where corruption is rampant, more than 40 percent of people live in poverty, and no election has met international standards.. PHOTO: AFP

Opposition parties promised rallies this week in protest against what they predicted would be widespread election fraud, although analysts say there is unlikely to be a repeat of the popular revolts that followed disputed polls in fellow ex-Soviet states Ukraine and Georgia.

The threat of violence hung over the election, with the interior minister saying the opposition might try to provoke the police and warning any illegal protests would be stamped out.

"The campaign was successful. Equal conditions were created for all candidates and that gives me hope the election will be democratic and transparent," President Ilham Aliyev said as he voted at a polling station in Baku's School No. 6.