A large crowd gathered in the capital of Azerbaijan on Saturday to protest the reelection of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.
Protesters in Baku demanded that the election be nullified and that Aliyev resign. Aliyev succeeded his father to the presidency of this oil-rich nation in 2003.
Police estimated there were 1,500 at the rally; the opposition put the number between 8,000 and 10,000. After presidential elections in 2003 and 2008, at least three to four times as many people gathered to contest the results. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the Wednesday vote flawed. The day before, the Central Election Commission released the results of the vote showing Aliyev comfortably in the lead. - AP