Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - Election officials in Azerbaijan have refused to register the main opposition candidate for October's presidential election in the authoritarian Caspian Sea nation.
Ilham Aliyev, who has been president of this former Soviet republic since taking over from his father a decade ago, is running for a third term on Oct. 9.
His main opponent was expected to be Rustam Ibrahimbekov, a 74-year-old screenwriter who has worked on popular Soviet and Russian films.
But the Central Election Commission ruled Tuesday that Ibrahimbekov is ineligible to run because he has dual Russian-Azerbaijani citizenship and lives primarily in Moscow, thus failing to meet a requirement that presidential candidates have lived in the country for at least 10 years.
No election in Azerbaijan has been deemed free and fair by independent international monitors.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
