Azerbaijan was voting yesterday in a parliamentary election expected to give the ruling party a big majority, with Western governments hungry for the country’s oil hoping vote fraud and violence would not wreck the ballot. Opposition parties promised rallies this week in protest against what they predicted would be widespread election fraud, although analysts say there is unlikely to be a repeat of the popular revolts that followed disputed polls in fellow ex-Soviet states Ukraine and Georgia.

The threat of violence hung over the election, with the Interior minister saying radical elements in the opposition might try to provoke the police and warning any illegal protests would be stamped out.

“Equal conditions were created for all candidates and that gives me hope the election will be democratic and transparent,” President Ilham Aliyev said as he voted at a polling station in Baku’s School No. 6. “The will of the people will be expressed in these elections,” he said. Azerbaijan is in a South Caucasus region crisscrossed with smouldering separatist conflicts. Western governments are anxious for stability, with a pipeline expected to begin delivering oil to world markets from next year.

For the first time, election officials in the 5,000 polling stations were spraying indelible ink on voters’ thumbs to stop them voting twice. It was part of a package of anti-fraud measures adopted days before the vote. Western officials said the measures gave them some hope 43-year-old Aliyev was at least attempting to reform his administration and the vote would be cleaner than in the past.

However, they said Aliyev was still struggling to stamp his authority on an old guard in his ruling elite which does not want to loosen its grip on power and may try to use strong-arm tactics in the election. The opposition spoke of a campaign of official harassment that made a fair vote impossible.