Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 26
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
Wolfgang Grossruck, former vice president of the OSCE PA (Parliamentary Assembly) and an observer from Austria, told Trend Sept. 26 that the observers from his country have not found any shortcomings in the procedure of holding the constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan.
Grossruck was the President of the Parliamentary Assembly in 2013. He was first elected Vice-President in 2008 and re-elected in 2011, and previously served as Rapporteur of the First General Committee.
“I have observed elections more than 50 times on behalf of the OSCE in the all OSCE member states,” he said. “The process of the referendum is very good.”
“I have been here in Azerbaijan more than 50 times, and I have observed more than 10 elections and the referendum,” noted Grossruck. “We couldn’t find any shortcomings, any mistakes.”
Members of the electoral commissions said also that the referendum is being held without any problems, he added.
He said also that in some polling stations there were a lot of people, in the morning especially.
“In the evening we expect more voters. We have seen no problems in any polling station,” noted Grossruck.
The referendum to make amendments to Azerbaijan’s Constitution kicked off at 08:00 and will wrap up at 19:00 (UTC/GMT +4).
The number of voters in Azerbaijan stands at 5,267,111 people, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
As many as 117 international observers – MPs from over 30 countries as well as observers from various international organizations, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) – have been accredited by Azerbaijan’s CEC to observe the referendum.
The total number of the observers is around 53,000.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to hold a referendum on amending the Constitution on Sept. 26.
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