Azerbaijan, Baku, March 19 / Trend , N.Abdullayeva/
The elections were success and everything met international standards, Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Monitoring Mission Head and Russian council Vice Speaker Svetlana Orlova said in Baku on March 19.
"People's choice is clear and obvious, because the authorities have decided many social issues," Orlova said.
There were not practically any violations in the voting process, she said.
Azerbaijan held a referendum on March 18 to amend the Constitution.
The Constitution was adopted in 1995. Amendments and additions were made in 2002.
According to the Central Elections Commission, 87-92 percent of voters supported all amendments to 29 articles of the Azerbaijani 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.
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