BAKU, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Opposition politician Gulamhusein Alibeyli, who is running in the October 15 presidential race in Azerbaijan, told EU monitors that no serious violations had been observed during the country's ongoing election campaign.

"Despite minor problems that sometimes arise during campaigning, the election campaign in the country could be assessed as satisfactory," Alibeyli, former chair of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (PFPA), said at a meeting with OSCE observers.

Azerbaijan's presidential campaign officially kicked off on September 17 and will run until October 14. Seven candidates, including incumbent Ilham Aliyev, have been registered as candidates in the election.

The main opposition coalition, comprising three main opposition parties - the Popular Front Party (PFPA), the Musavat Party and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (DPA) - has boycotted the elections.

Aliyev, who took over as president when his father Heydar stepped down in 2003, was nominated by the New Azerbaijan Party for a second five-year term in August. Five other candidates have also been chosen as candidates by their parties. Alibeyli is standing as an independent candidate.

In September, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed an election observation mission to observe the polls. The mission includes 12 core team members and 28 long-term observers from 23 OSCE participating states.

An interim OSCE/ODIHR report said the "campaign atmosphere" in the country is "calm and quiet, and public interest in the campaign appears limited, apparently due to a perceived lack of genuine competition."

Azerbaijan's leader Aliyev won 76.84% of the vote during the country's October 15 presidential elections in 2003.