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Introduction:

Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliev, had reason to look ahead to the November 2005 parliamentary elections with apprehension. Two years earlier, in October 2003, his succession of his father Heidar as president was marred by the bloody repression of streets protests. In the intervening period, revolutions had removed longstanding semi-authoritarian leaders in neighboring Georgia and in nearby Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Could the wave of revolutions loosen Aliev's grip on power and sweep him from office? Would the frequent, well-attended rallies held for many months before the elections provide the opposition with enough momentum to seize a significant number of seats from the Yeni Azerbaycan Party, the party that had dominated the Azerbaijani parliament since it was founded by Heidar Aliev in 1993? Or would the pressure on the opposition and on youth movements avert that danger?

The run-up to the elections proved to be highly dramatic, reaching a highpoint when, shortly before the vote, senior members of the government were charged with seeking to overthrow Aliev. As expected, the vote itself produced another victory for pro-presidential forces and, as anticipated, the opposition mounted a forceful street campaign to protest at the conduct of the elections. But there was, this time, no revolution. Aliev had, it seemed, contained the pressure for change.

An annotated timeline for the 6 November legislative elections.

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RFE/RL Caucasus Report

For weekly news and in-depth analysis on Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia's North Caucasus by e-mail, subscribe to "RFE/RL Caucasus Report."

Unrest in Azerbaijan

An archive of RFE/RL's coverage of the unrest in Azerbaijan following the disputed October 2003 election of President Ilham Aliyev. continued

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