TODAY.AZ / Politics

Nationwide voting underway in Azerbaijan

26 September 2016 [12:41] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews



By Nigar Abbasova

The citizens of Azerbaijan are voting today to approve or disapprove the changes and supplements proposed to the country's major law - the Constitution.

The voting has began at 08:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) on Monday morning, while the Central Elections Commission, which is eligible to organize referendum, fixed the voter turnout at 12.9 percent as of 10:00. Almost 680,438 people have given their votes for far, according to the Election Information Center.

The CEC has finalized the preparations for the polls so that to ensure every condition for participation of voters. Thus, the 119- year old Hasanova Nubar (Sabail electoral district) and Khanmemmedova Susenber (Zangilan –Gubadli electoral district) were the oldest voters to cast the ballots into boxes, which were delivered to their residences.

In a bill sent to the Constitutional Court President Ilham Aliyev proposed amendments to 29 Articles of Azerbaijan’s current constitution.

The changes envisage extension of the presidential term from five to seven years, establishment of the first vice-president and vice-president positions in the country as well as cancellation of minimum age limit for presidential candidates, dissolution of parliament by the president.

The voting is being conducted in 125 constituencies in 5,627 polling stations.

Some 38 polling stations were set up in Azerbaijan`s diplomatic missions abroad so that citizens in foreign countries could also cast their ballots and express their will. Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the UAE Dashgin Shikarov said that the turnout of voters in the station set up in Azerbaijan’s embassy in the UAE has so far amounted to more than 50 percent.  

As many as 26 polling stations in 14 constituencies were set up in prisons and detention centers of the penitentiary service of the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry. 

Web-cameras are being used in a number of polling stations to ensure transparency of the electoral process. The latest technologies will be used to inform the public about the voting process.

The CEC also invited both international and local observers to monitor the polls across the country to ensure transparency in the vote. 

As many as 117 international observers – MPs from around 33 countries as well as observers from various international organizations have been accredited by Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to observe the referendum. The total number of the observers is around 53,000.

Among the observers are mission of the the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS), headed by Deputy Chairman of Council of Federation of the Russian Federal Assembly Ilyas Umakhanov, the international mission, consisting of MPs of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries (TurkPA), an observer mission of the Australian Parliament.

A number of trainings and seminars were conducted for constituency members and heads of polling stations.

Each polling station will send the information to constituencies and then it will be transferred to the special system, created for the transmission of data.  

The voting will wrap up at 19:00 (UTC/GMT +4). Final results of the nationwide vote will be announced till October 21.

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.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/154515.html

Print version

Views: 993

Connect with us. Get latest news and updates.

Recommend news to friend

  • Your name:
  • Your e-mail:
  • Friend's name:
  • Friend's e-mail: