She gained notoriety in 2012 after a video shot on a hidden camera was released, featuring Ahmadova negotiating a bribe sum with lawyer and fellow party member Elshad Abdullayev to help arrange, among other things, his election to the Azerbaijani parliament.
This was later confirmed by Ahmadova's opposition rival Eldar Namazov who said his observers in ten polling stations had been attacked by the police and their protocols destroyed.
During her parliament membership, she proved herself a vehement critic of both the opposition and her fellow ruling party members, and described herself as "a Heydar Aliyev follower".
[4] In a 2006 interview, she accused the then recently sacked and imprisoned Health Minister, Ali Insanov, of giving Azerbaijani children up for illegal adoption abroad.
[5] She was known as an advocate for children's rights and one of the few members of parliament who openly voiced their concern with regard to the frequent non-combat deaths among new conscripts in the Azerbaijani army in the early 2010s.
[17] On 25 September 2012, ex-rector of the Azerbaijan International University (which was stripped of its license and closed down in 2010), Elshad Abdullayev, who currently resides in France, posted a video on YouTube, dated 2005, in which a hidden camera captured a conversation involving himself, Gular Ahmadova and her friend Sevinj Babayeva in what appears to be an office room.
During the sixteen-and-a-half-minute long footage, the three are seen and heard negotiating a price that Abdullayev is expected to pay in return for being given a seat in the National Assembly of Azerbaijan as an MP.
In the video, Abdullayev repeatedly tries to get Ahmadova to admit that the money will go directly to the Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Republic Ramiz Mehdiyev, though she never openly confirms that.
[21][22] In the next video released on 6 October 2012, Gular Ahmadova is heard talking about various high-ranking government officials compiling lists of MP candidates which they would like to see in the National Assembly following the election.
[24] Sevinj Babayeva, who fled to Istanbul, Turkey after the release of the first video, was reported to have died of heart failure after checking in at a clinic on 26 December.
On 5 July 2013, the Central Election Commission announced there would be no by-election held to fill the vacant seat following Ahmadova's resignation.
[35] The relatively mild verdict was ruled considering the fact that Ahmadova had previously had a clear criminal record, had been three-time elected parliament member, had engaged in charitable work, was suffering from unnamed health conditions and was a parent of an underage child.
"[41] In an August 2015 interview, Ahmadova, without offering a specific date, admitted that she had been on the brink of committing suicide during "the most difficult times" of her life.
[42] In late 2015, Ahmadova filed an appeal in order to have herself cleared out of all charges but on 16 February 2016, after she had failed twice to show up for a hearing, the court refused to rule in her favour.