October 6, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 28, 1423

BAKU, Sept 5: Nearly 10,000 anti-government demonstrators marched through Azerbaijan’s capital on Saturday in a rally opposition leaders said was a dress rehearsal for next year’s presidential elections.

The demonstration in Baku, the second mass rally in three weeks, is seen as a sign of growing discontent with the rule of 79-year-old President Heidar Aliyev, who is seeking a third term in office.

“This is proof that the people do not want to live any longer under these rulers,” Sardar Dzhalaloglu, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said at the rally as protesters shouted slogans calling on Aliyev to resign.

The rally was held less than a month after another opposition-led protest which also drew an estimated 10,000 demonstrators, making it the biggest public show of discontent with the government in two years.

Former Communist Party boss Aliyev has ruled oil-rich Azerbaijan for most of the past 30 years and holds a tight grip on power in the Caspian Sea nation.

But there is widespread anger that despite its oil wealth many of Azerbaijan’s eight million people still live in poverty.

The opposition said the mass protest put the government on notice that it could not get away with rigging the presidential election, scheduled to take place late next year, in Aliyev’s favour.—AFP