Azerbaijani referendum to see high voter turnout: Presidential Administration official

"The people have been informed about the core of the Constitutional amendments put to the referendum vote during the campaign. I am sure that over 70 percent of voters got familiar with the core of the constitutional amendments during the campaign. I think voters will turn out in large numbers to express their feelings about amendments on March 18," Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Public and Political Department head Ali Hasanov told Trend News.

Azerbaijani referendum groups launched campaigning on Feb. 18. The campaign will end by 00:00 on March 16.  Each referendum group has been allocated 23,000 manat to campaign.

Azerbaijan will hold a referendum on March 18 to amend 29 Articles of the Constitution.

New Azerbaijan, City, Progress, Law and Democracy, Civil Society, For Sustainable Development and Intellect referendum groups campaign for the referendum and Movement for Karabakh and Republic and Republicans initiative groups campaign against the referendum.

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

A total of 47,000 local and 170 international observers will monitor the referendum vote. The final list of observers will be made public on March 17.

Hasanov said the pre-referendum atmosphere in Azerbaijan has meets procedures envisaged by the Election Code. "All nine referendum groups have been provided with necessary conditions in the venues allotted for them in regions, villages and Baku. The referendum campaign terminates today. The referendum groups have an access both to electronic resources and newspapers," Hasanov said.

Hasanov highly appreciated seminars for the heads of the administrative bodies and constituencies by the OSCE, Central Election Commission and Presidential Administration.

"First of all, the significance of seminars is that the seminar participants were informed of some organizational issues. The heads of the administrative bodies were informed of responsibility for election violations. The seminars helped to better educate and to improve skills of referendum participants. The referendum will meet all international standards and Election Code," Hasanov said.

/Trend News/