Voter turnout in Azerbaijani constitutional referendum nears 13% within 2 hours - Central Election Commission
BAKU. Sept 26 (Interfax) - The voter turnout in the Azerbaijani referendum on constitutional amendments reached 12.9% as of 10 a.m. local time (9 a.m. Moscow time).
"Within the first two hours of the referendum, 680,438 people cast their ballots at polling stations: voter turnout stood at 12.9%," the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission's Information Center Director Farid Orujev told the press.
Azerbaijan has over 5.267 million eligible voters.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time. The voting will end at 7 p.m. local time.
On July 18, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev submitted to the Constitutional Court a draft act on a referendum regarding constitutional amendments. For instance, he proposed to establish the positions of first vice-president and vice-presidents. In addition, it is planned to extend the president's tenure from five to seven years.
Other constitutional amendments enable the head of state to declare an early presidential election. The period assigned for holding early elections in the event of the president's resignation may be cut from three months to 60 days.
The Azerbaijani constitution may be amended with a clause on disbandment of the Milli Majlis (parliament) and lower age qualification for parliament candidates - the right to run for parliament will be given to all eligible voters older than 18. So far, only people older than 25 can be elected to parliament.
The referendum results will be announced before October 21.