Azerbaijan election results lead to riots and two deaths

AT LEAST two people were killed yesterday in clashes between riot police and thousands of Azeri demonstrators who poured on to the streets of Baku to protest against the election of the son of Haydar Aliyev, the ailing current leader, to the nation’s presidency.

Within hours of Ilham Aliyev’s victory, which marked the first dynastic succession in a former Soviet state, about 3,000 opposition activists surged towards a central square holding government offices, hurling stones and overturning cars.

The supporters of Isa Gambar, an opposition candidate, chanted "Isa! Isa!" and banged truncheons and shields stolen from police. But after 20 minutes of running battles, the square was emptied.

Medics found a man’s body covered in blood outside a Baku clinic, while reporters on the scene said they saw a lifeless young boy lying at the scene of the violence. Medical teams said about 50 protesters were hurt.

The election was closely watched by neighbouring Russia, Turkey and Iran, and seen by the West as key for the future of an oil pipeline being built from Baku to the Mediterranean Sea.

Mr Aliyev jnr promised stability for his eight million people and vowed to pursue the policies of his father, the dominant force in the Caspian state since the 1960s.

With 91 per cent of votes counted, election officials said Mr Aliyev jnr had won 79.5 per cent, far ahead of Mr Gambar’s 12.06 per cent.

But the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the election was punctuated by violence, intimidation, ballot-stuffing and media bias.

"What we observed was an electoral process falling short of international standards," said Giovanni Kessler, the head of the OSCE mission in Azerbaijan.