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50 percent of Azerbaijani citizens in Egypt attend Azerbaijani referendum on Constitution amending by 14:00

Politics Materials 18 March 2009 17:12 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 18 / Trend , U.Sadigova/

Sixty-five Azerbaijani citizens in Egypt voted on referendum to amend the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan by 14:00, Azerbaijani ambassador to Egypt Faig Bagirov told Trend over phone from Cairo.

The polling station in Cairo will be closed at 19:00 local time.

"The list of Azerbaijani visitors to Egypt has been compiled during the preparations to the referendum. A total of 115 Azerbaijani citizens were registered. A special commission was created in the Azerbaijani Embassy to hold the referendum on the highest level,"' the Embassy said.

The Azerbaijani Constitution was adopted in 1995. Amendments and additions were made in 2002.

Azerbaijan is holding a referendum on March 18 to amend the Constitution.

The referendum was initiated by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. The referendum proposes to replace the current edition of the 5th paragraph of Article 101 of the Azerbaijani Constitution, which states that "no person shall be elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for more than two consecutive terms", by an option extending incumbent President's office term in case when ongoing military operations during a war make it impossible to conduct a regular presidential election. The term of office of Azerbaijani President is 5 years. The incumbent President Ilham Aliyev was elected to the post in 2003 and 2008.

A total of 41 amendments to 29 articles are planned to be made in the Constitution. The amendments envisage postponement of parliamentary elections in case of military operations, right of legislative initiative to 40,000 voters, ban on keeping video and audio recording and photographing a person against his will, financial support to ex-presidents of Azerbaijan, as well as technical changes..

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