TODAY.AZ / Politics

Referendum – confidence vote in independent Azerbaijan

26 September 2016 [18:56] - TODAY.AZ

The referendum is a kind of vote of confidence in the Azerbaijani president, in the independent Azerbaijan, in its independent domestic and foreign policy, Ilyas Umakhanov, deputy chairman of the Council of the Federation of Russia’s Federal Assembly, head of the observation mission of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, told reporters on September 26 in Baku.

Umakhanov said that the representatives of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly have visited 60 polling stations.

“I want to note with satisfaction that there is a high activity of citizens both in Baku and in the whole country,” he added.

Queues lined up in front of polling stations before the opening of district election commissions, in other words at 07:45 (GMT+4) people already came to the places of vote, added Umakhanov.

One the one hand, it shows the political maturity of the Azerbaijani society, its commitment and understanding of the importance of the issues included in the agenda of the referendum, he said.

“On the other hand, of course, we all understand this very well, and such an understanding is also shared by other observers, including observers from the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking countries (TURKPA), that it is a kind of confidence vote to the Azerbaijani president, to the autonomous and independent Azerbaijan,” added Umakhanov.

The referendum to make amendments to Azerbaijan’s Constitution kicked off at 08:00 and will wrap up at 19:00 (UTC/GMT +4).

The number of voters in Azerbaijan stands at 5,267,111 people, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

As many as 117 international observers – MPs from over 30 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 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. 

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/154548.html

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