Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 14 / Trend , A.Huseynbala/
The Azerbaijani governing party's initiative group on referendum will hold mass events during agitation campaign.
"We have great plans on holding mass events during the agitation campaign. We will use all kinds of meeting in line with the Election Code," Deputy Executive Secretary of the New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) and MP Siyavush Novruzov told Trend on Jan. 14.
Azerbaijan's governing party has launched the New Azerbaijan initiative group. The opposition Musavat party has established the Republicans initiative group. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has already made a notification on the registration of the NAP initiative group.
The Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, Citizen and Development Party, National Unity Movement, For Azerbaijan public association, Democratic Party and several NGOs have established the Civil Movement for the Republic and Garabagh initiative groups.
Earlier, NAP Deputy Executive Secretary Mubariz Gurbanli told Trend that the opposition initiative groups would be ineffective.
As many as 21 media leaders launched the Free Word (Azad Soz) initiative group on Jan. 10 to support the referendum. On the same day, the Azerbaijan Confederation of Trade Unions and several non-governmental organizations established the Public Organizations initiative group.
The Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation established the Law and Democracy initiative group on Jan. 13.
In late December, Azerbaijan's parliament passed a decision to hold a referendum March 18 to amend the Constitution. It was decided to hold a referendum to amend 29 articles in the Constitution.
According to Article 152, the Constitution can only be amended via referendum. Additionally, Article 153 states that if the parliament or president proposes an amendment, the Constitutional Court must reach its own conclusions regarding the proposal before the referendum vote.
The Constitution was adopted in 1995. Amendments and additions were made in 2002.
The NAP initiative group will launch agitation campaign on referendum after passing registration at the CEC, Novruzov said.
"A total of 28 days have been determined for agitation. We will prefer to enlighten people on issues of the referendum during this period," Novruzov said.
He said that a signature collecting campaign of the New Azerbaijan initiative group finished.
"We have collected roughly 47,000 signatures which have been examined by our experts," the member of the NAP said. "We will submit documents to the Central Elections Commission today."
The NAP was founded in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan (NAR) in 1992. Late President Heydar Aliyev was the first chairman of the NAP, which has been governing for 15 years. Present chairman of the party is the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
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