TWO of Azerbaijan’s opposition parties said last night that police had arrested their campaign managers, less than 48 hours before a parliamentary election that will test the former Soviet republic’s commitment to democracy.

Uniformed police detained Gabil Mamedzayev, of the Popular Front, as he was walking home in a suburb of the Azeri capital, Baku, an opposition aide told The Times. The Democratic Party, which has joined forces with the Popular Front in the main opposition bloc, said earlier that its campaign manager, Faramaz Javadov, had been arrested after a raid on its headquarters.

Police released Mr Mamedzayev after several hours, but last night had not confirmed Mr Javadov’s arrest.

The Opposition denounced the arrests as a government attempt to rig the results of tomorrow’s elections in the Caucasian republic. “They are trying to behead our organisational efforts,” said Murad Gassanly, a political consultant to Ali Kerimli, the Popular Front’s leader. “This is a clear indication that they are worried that Ali Kerimli might get through and that they are trying to disrupt the last days of our campaign.”

Azerbaijan’s Opposition has called for protests if the election is rigged, hoping to spark a peaceful revolution like those that have rocked Georgia and Ukraine. But analysts say that they would struggle to attract more than a few thousand protesters and that geopolitical interests will ensure that criticism by Western Governments of electoral abuses is limited.

Azerbaijan is one of the few Muslim countries to have sent troops to Iraq and opened airspace to US military planes. The US has built radar stations on its borders with Iran and is said to see Azerbaijan as a potential site for a military base. Western companies, led by BP, have invested billions in building a pipeline to take Caspian oil from Baku, via Georgia and Turkey, to Western markets.

President Aliyev has promised a clean vote but has also taken tough measures even within his own Administration to avert the threat of a Ukrainian-style revolution. Yesterday he warned his Cabinet not to side with the Opposition, two weeks after dismissing 12 senior officials and having two ministers arrested for allegedly planning a coup. “Those who want to get into politics, please stand up and go. The people elected me and I answer to them. But you answer to me,” he told his ministers.

The European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring the poll, have expressed concerns, but President Bush recently wrote to Mr Aliyev praising his commitment to a free and fair vote.

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