(9 Oct 2013) The opposition candidate in Azerbaijan's presidential election has asserted that "the whole election process" has been falsified.
Jamil Hasanli spoke to assembled media after polls opened at 0300 GMT Wednesday.
"The people are out voting without any violation, but others are trying to falsify the whole election process," he said after casting his vote.
The presidential race is dominated by incumbent Ilham Aliyev, whose low-key campaign for a third term reflected his confidence that he will roll over the main opposition challenger and eight fringe candidates.
The Director of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Janez Lenarcic, was in Baku on Wednesday observing the electoral process.
He said elections were "always a test of democracy in every country. And it is the same for Azerbaijan."
The opposition's hopes of challenging Aliyev suffered a humiliating setback when election officials refused to register its original candidate.
They did so on the grounds that he had dual Russian and Azerbaijani citizenship, something explicitly banned by the constitution of the former Soviet republic.
As windfall oil revenues have filtered down to Azerbaijan's poorest, the opposition has found it hard to assail the government's economic policies.
Hasanli, an historian who is the main opposition candidate, instead focused on government corruption and social inequality.
"It is our hope that the process will be, how do I say? Transparent. We'll see," said Lenarcic.
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