- Title: AZERBAIJAN: VOTING BEGINS IN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM.
- Date: 24th August 2002
- Summary: (W4) BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (AUGUST 24, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV: VOTERS RECEIVING BALLOTS (2 SHOTS) 0.17 2. GV: VOTERS LEAVING VOTING BOOTHS / PEOPLE VOTING 0.29 3. MV: PRESIDENT HAIDER ALIYEV EXITING VOTING BOOTH, CASTING BALLOT (2 SHOTS) 1.03 4. MV: MEDIA 1.05 5. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT, HAIDER
- Embargoed: 8th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
- Country: Azerbaijan
- Reuters ID: LVA9OWT65N1MVUQQGKXJ6YO8WFSC
- Story Text: The former Soviet state of Azerbaijan has begun voting
in a controversial constitutional referendum.
The government says the proposed changes will place the
nation on the course of European democratic development while
the opposition has called for a boycott of the vote which it
says is being held only to ensure that ageing President Haider
Aliyev can transfer power to his son.
Azeris voted on Saturday (August 24) in a referendum
that seemed certain to tighten ailing President Haydar
Aliyev's grip on power and leave him placed to name his son as
his political successor.
It was called to fine-tune the constitution but has been
criticised by the opposition which says it is intended to
establish a political dynasty in the oil-rich republic.
After casting his vote Aliyev said he had no plan to hand
over his post to anyone at the coming presidential elections
and expressed confidence in the Azeris' support for his
referendum.
"I intend to run for a third term in 2003 and I hope that
the people will re-elect me," he said.
But a vast portrait showing the 79-year-old Aliyev,
delivering a speech to his son Ilgam, is lending support to
opposition charges the referendum will merely facilitate the
transfer of power to the president's own flesh and blood.
Analysts say that under one proposed amendment to the
constitution, the prime minister will become officially the
second most powerful person in the hierarchy, standing in if
the president is unable to govern, instead of the
parliamentary speaker as now.
As the prime minister is named by the president, unlike
the speaker who is chosen by parliament, Aliyev will
effectively be able to make his son, or another loyal ally,
his legal stand-in by making him premier.
Ilgam Aliyev is deputy head of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan
(New Azerbaijan) party and first vice-president of the state
oil company.
His father is a tough act to follow and many are not sure
he can or even wants to.
When asked what his political ambitions were Ilgam neither
confirmed nor denied he had any wish to become president one
day.
"At least until 2008, nobody should think about that,"
Ilgam Aliyev said.
Opposition parties accused him of widespread fraud when he
was re-elected four years ago and the OSCE and Council of
Europe said the ballot was not conducted according to
international standards.
A former KGB officer and one-time member of Leonid
Brezhnev's politburo, Aliyev has sealed a raft of
multi-billion-dollar deals with Western companies to develop
the former Soviet republic's Caspian oil deposits since coming
to power in 1993.
He has sought to maintain the delicate balance in
relations with Azerbaijan's three big neighbours - NATO member
Turkey, Russia and Iran.
But his rule has been marked by harsh action against
opposition parties, some of which do not recognise his
re-election in 1998, and harassment of the opposition press.
Opposition party leader Ali Karimov, of the Azerbaijan
Popular Front Party, says Aliyev's referendum will effectively
kill any chance of democracy for the country and has called on
voters to boycott it.
"We are worried that the results of the referendum will
get rid of the system of proportional representation and
possibly change the transfer of power once the President
leaves his post. Therefore, we called all our supporters to
boycott the referendum. We decided not to participate and
vote against the proposal because the election commission is
fully under the control of the government and we do not trust
the commission. Therefore, we are boycotting," Karimov said.
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