PACE to present final report on referendum in Azerbaijan
By Gunay Hasanova
The Referendum Assessment Mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are monitoring the referendum on amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan on September 26.
The mission representatives began monitoring the polling stations of the Sabail district constituency.
The PACE mission, consisting of seven people, will monitor different polling stations in Baku and its suburbs.
PACE reported that preliminary results of the observations will be announced on September 27 at a press conference at 10:45 while the final report will be ready within one or two months.
The voting for making amendments to Azerbaijan’s constitution kicked off at 08:00 and will wrap up at 19:00 (UTC/GMT +4).
As of 12:00 (GMT+4) 1,613,879 people have voted in the constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan, according to the Election Information Center of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
It was also reported that Azerbaijani citizens’ participation in the referendum can be rated very active and the voter turnout reached 30.6 percent as of 12:00.
The referendum to amend Azerbaijan’s Constitution is being held transparently, Carmen Quintanilla, a Spanish MP, and a member of the European People’s Party (EPP) delegation said.
“People are very pleased with the voting process,” she said, adding that Azerbaijani people are voting for their democracy and freedom.
In turn, TurkPA Secretary General Jandos Asanov who is observing the referendum in Azerbaijan also said that People of Azerbaijan are consciously approaching to the referendum to amend the Constitution and are exercising their right to vote.
Meanwhile, the CEC reported that no cases of complaints were observed so far.
The number of voters in Azerbaijan stands at 5,267,111 people.
As many as 117 international observers – MPs from around 35 countries as well as observers from various international organizations, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) – have been accredited by Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to observe the referendum.
The total number of the observers is around 53,000.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to hold a referendum on amending the Constitution on September 26.
Final results of the Referendum will be announced until October 21.
The last time changes to the Constitution were made seven years ago, following Constitutional referendum held in 2009.
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