Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan goes to the polls today to elect a new president, with the reformed playboy son of a Soviet stalwart expected to establish a new political dynasty in the oil-rich nation, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow
Mr Ilham Aliyev is seen as almost certain to win the vote, putting the seal on a father-to-son succession that Azeris have predicted for years, despite widespread criticism of rampant corruption overseen by President Haidar Aliyev during a decade of rule.
Supporters of Aliyev snr, who has not been seen since going into a US hospital for heart and kidney treatment in August, praise strong and steady economic growth since he became president in 1993, driven by the oil riches of the Caspian Sea that laps the shoreline of the Azeri capital, Baku.
A former leader of Azerbaijan's KGB and a member of Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet politburo, the ailing Aliyev snr anointed his son as chosen successor in August, and his campaign's subsequent domination of domestic coverage of the election has unsettled several human rights and democracy groups.
"The direct result of the government-sponsored campaign against the opposition is that . . . elections in Azerbaijan will be of questionable legitimacy, regardless of the fairness and transparency of the election-day procedures," said New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Mr Aliyev's main opponents have pledged to bring their supporters onto the streets if they suspect the poll is rigged, and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said violence was already a feature of the election.
"The thing we least like to see is violence, and there has been violence in this campaign . . . and we have seen intimidation in various forms including detentions, people losing their jobs and people being threatened in various ways," said the OSCE's Mr Peter Eicher.