Fraud in Past Azerbaijan Elections

It is easy to say in the last election when Ilham Aliyev was elected president, there was widespread fraud. When Haydar Aliyev was elected president, he put his own family members into governmental positions. So it was not surprised that after Haydar past away, his son Ilham took power. Much of the public was not okay with this because it was known that he was into gambling and drinking, rather than running a country.
Fraud was noticed right for when citizens went to place their vote. In the districts where Aliyev was not supported and the opposition was their name was not on the official voter’ list. In other districts, there were more names on the list than people living in that particular district. There were cameras watching people placing their vote, and police units watching them, intimidating the voter with their looks. Other districts there were employers saying if they vote for this person they wouldn’t have a job anymore. Violence even erupted outside the polling stations by opposition parties.
When the results were released, a war or coup did not occur, but rather rallies so violent that there was physical brutality, arrests, and death. On October 16, there were 15,000 opposition supporters went face to face with 5,000 policemen, resulting in 5 deaths. The rebels were using metal pipes, tree branches, and sharpened stakes to fight the policemen. It is said that it was the worst protest and suppression from an election result. In the days following, there were over 300 arrests, and the election officials refused to confirm the ballot results in each district. Weeks after there was still more protesting, but not as severe.
The election is only a few weeks away, with the opposition party boycotting, it will be interesting to see how the people of Azerbaijan react to the result of the presidential election.
Source: http://www.ciaonet.org.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/olj/si/si_2_12/si_2_12_sab01.pdf

Here are also some additional websites to go to for more information on the 2005 presidential election:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/10/13/azerba6448.htm - Human Rights Watch on Azerbaijan’s election
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/international/asia/10azerbaijan.html - Crowd Protests Fraud in Azerbaijan Vote, written to help us understand the people’s reaction to the fraud.