Minister: Azerbaijan moving on elections
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-16 10:32

Azerbaijan's foreign minister said Thursday that his nation has made major steps toward holding free elections, despite opposition fears the Nov. 6 vote will be rigged and rising anti-government protests in this former Soviet republic.

Elmar Mammadyarov also played down prospects that the oil-rich Caspian nation could see a popular uprising similar to those that have taken place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

"The government, and the president himself, are committed to conducting free and fair elections," Mammadyarov told The Associated Press in New York, where he was attending a U.N. summit.

"We have taken strong steps to meet international standards. This vote will be much fairer than what we have done before," he said.

The opposition had demanded that Azerbaijani election commission members be fired in the wake of the fraudulent October 2003 presidential vote and municipal elections the following year, but the government has refused to budge.

On Saturday, more than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free. Protests have become almost weekly affairs.

Azerbaijan formally launched the election campaign Wednesday after authorities registered more than 2,000 candidates running for 125 parliament seats in the vote.

But an uprising that topples the government is considered unlikely,

The United States considers the mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million, which has troops in Iraq, an important ally. And the West, which at least tacitly supported the uprisings that ousted leaders in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, has sunk large investments into energy projects here.

Mammadyarov said the situation was different in Azerbaijan, with his country in the process of a "political maturation process" and called for protests to be peaceful.

"Protesters shouldn't beat police and police shouldn't beat protesters," he said.

The foreign minister also said Azerbaijan was willing to contribute to the world's oil security and stabilize gasoline prices with its reserves.

In May, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey opened the $3.2 billion Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, sending the first flow of Caspian Sea oil that is seen as key to reducing the West's reliance on Middle East oil.

The Caspian is thought to contain the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves, and Azerbaijan could be supplying up to 1.6 million barrels a day by 2009-2010, he said.

Close

Suicide bombing kills at least 152 in Iraq Afghanistan's President calls for increased support Hurricane Ophelia

Today's Top News     Top World News
Foreign investors able to buy large SOEs         Hu calls for a harmonious world at summit         Shanghai-Taipei direct flight proposed         US and North Korea clash at nuclear talks         Province closes all coal mines, permanently         China not planning more yuan revaluations	Iran set to share nuclear info in Muslim world       US and North Korea clash at nuclear talks       Qatar offers rare praise for Israel       UN to help Iraqis print constitution       Japan renews call for UN Security Council seat       Putin: U.N. has key role in terror fight