Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Opposition Authorized To Hold Protest Rally

Voting in Baku on 6 November (epa)

11 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Officials in the Azerbaijani capital Baku have authorized opposition supporters to stage a protest rally later this week.

TEXT SIZE - +

November 11, 2005

However, Baku city official Zaur Ramazanov told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that the rally will take place on 13 November, instead of a day earlier.

He said the decision to postpone the demonstration was made because tomorrow is Constitution Day in Azerbaijan.

Also, Ramazanov said city authorities have authorized the opposition to demonstrate only for two hours, instead of three.

The planned rally has been called by nearly all of Azerbaijani opposition parties, which are challenging the outcome of the 6 November legislative polls.

The opposition says the vote was fraudulent and want new elections to be held.

International organizations have also criticized the polls, saying they failed to meet international election standards.

Official results show the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan (New Azerbaijan) Party is set to retain a large, though reduced, majority of seats in the legislature.

Azerbaijan In Focus

Timeline: How The Elections Have Unfolded

President Serzh Sarkisian has promised fair elections

Prospect Of Vote-Rigging Overshadows Armenian Election

The Armenian parliamentary elections due in May will not simply be a struggle between rival political parties with diverging priorities and platforms. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Former KGB head Leonid Tibilov is a presidential hopeful.

Repeat South Ossetian Election Campaign Gathers Momentum

The run-up to the repeat election on March 24 for a new de facto president of Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia bears an uncanny resemblance to last November's election campaign. More