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Voter turnout hits 61.92 percent in Azerbaijani Ganja city

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

Azerbaijan, Ganja, March 18 / Trend , V.Mammadov/

Voter turnout hit 61.92 percent in Ganja (365 kilometers of Baku) as of 17:00.

Over 90,000 people voted in Ganja, constituencies told Trend .

As of 17:00, 91,430 voters (61.92 percent) out of 147,654 visited polling stations to express their attitude towards the Constitutional amendments.

A total of 110 polling stations were opened in Ganja in four constituencies - No 37, 38, 39 and 40.

Over 1,000 local observers watch the voting in Ganja. Webcams were installed in 26 polling stations.

Today Azerbaijan is holding a referendum to amend 29 Articles of the Constitution.

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.

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

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