Azerbaijan, Baku, March 18 / Trend ,A.Huseynbala / The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) considers the referendum to amend 29 Articles of the Constitution of Azerbaijan to be held, Ali Ahmadov, Deputy Secretary, Executive Secretary of NAP, said to press conference.
"Voter turnout in the referendum testifies that the amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan are necessary," he said.
Today Azerbaijan is holding a referendum to amend 29 Articles of the Constitution. The voting completed on 19:00. According to the information as of 17:00 with local time, 64.12 percent of the voters (3,137,851 voters) participated in the elections.
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.
Ahmadov said that the single name initiative group of the ruling party played its role in the successful conduct of the referendum.
During the agitation campaign, Yeni Azerbaijan initiative group held nearly 1,500 meetings with the voters, Ahmadov said.
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