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Azeri parliament

adopts controversial

election law

BAKU,(Azerbaijan): Azerbaijan's parliament on Saturday approved an election law condemned by opposition parties and set November 12 as the date for choosing a new parliament.

The opposition coalition Round Table said it might boycott the balloting, which it claimed is bound to be unfair since the government has already barred Azerbaijan's five main opposition parties from taking part.

Opposition leaders also complained about the election commission that will organize and run the elections.

"The election commission won't have any opposition representatives. That means the government can approve the results it likes and annul the ones it doesn't like," Round Table leader Zardusht Alizaze charged.

Not a single amendment to the law was approved by parliament on Saturday.

The Bill, proposed by President Geidar Aliev, calls for a 125-seat parliament, with 100 members elected directly and 25 coming from party lists.

The opposition had wanted a 181-member parliament split evenly between directly elected representatives and party nominees.

The Azeri government's increasingly autocratic manner, which echoes developments elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, has drawn foreign as well as domestic criticism.

US ambassador Richard Kauzlarich earlier this week said Washington was "concerned" about the refusal to allow the five opposition parties to register for the election.-AP