Azerbaijani people vote for changes and amendments to Constitution
By Nigar Abbasova
Azerbaijan held a nationwide vote on amending the country's founding law – the Constitution on September 26. The citizens of Azerbaijan were asked to express their will by repealing or accepting particular changes and proposals through a direct vote.
Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC), which is responsible for all voting-related processes, has declared the country's referendum valid after it fixed a turnout standing at 30.6-percent just in the first hours of the polls, while a turnout of 25 percent was sufficient for the referendum to be legitimate.
Head of CEC Mazahir Panahov has already announced the information received from 5,627 polling stations where the referendum was held. He said that the vast majority of the voters supported the amendments to all the paragraphs put up for voting, adding that the voter turnout throughout the country stood at 69.7 percent (3,671,707 people).
Voters in Azerbaijan were offered several amendments to the Constitution, including on extending the presidential term from five to seven years, the introduction of the position of Vice-presidents, as well as a reduction in the age limit, for presidential candidates, dissolution of parliament by the president. In tote, amendments were proposed to 29 articles of the Constitution.
A total of 900 interviewers and 60 supervisors have been involved in the exit poll, the results of which revealed high turnout of voters, while approximately 88.9 percent of the voters supported the constitutional amendments.
Voting rights were also provided to the citizens living abroad. Azerbaijani nationals voted actively at the polling stations created in diplomatic representations, located in some 40 countries to ensure participation of the country’s citizens (residing abroad or sent on an assignment trip) in the referendum.
The polls were monitored by international and local observers accredited by the CEC, who watched the voting process across the country and assessed the conduct of voting on the basis of national legislation and international election standards.
Some 117 international observers representing 35 countries, who have vast experience of elections in various parts of the world observed the polls. The vote was monitored by observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the international mission, consisting of MPs of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries (TurkPA), an observer mission of the Australian Parliament and others.
The voting observation missions expressed their satisfaction with the conditions ensured in the polls, as well as with performance of election commissions, mentioning that stations were equipped with all materials, necessary for the unruffled and transparent running of the process.
Observers fixed high activity of the population, while no serious breach of law was registered. The number of polling stations in the referendum was 5,600 and there were about 10 observers in each polling station.
Security cameras have been installed at 1,000 polling stations (around 20 percent) in 119 constituencies across the country with a view to fully observe the processes in polling stations.
Missions of observers will also keep an eye on the counting of votes, and the determination and declaration of preliminary results.
Referendums were also held in Azerbaijan in 1995, 2002. The last time changes to the Constitution were made seven years ago, following Constitutional referendum held in 2009.
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