Voters have overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes extending Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s time in office in a referendum denounced by opposition and rights groups as a ploy to cement an Aliyev family dynasty.
With all ballots counted from Monday’s nationwide referendum, more than 91 percent of voters had approved constitutional amendments extending the president’s term in office from five to seven years, the Azerbaijani Central Election Commission said yesterday, adding that turnout was 69.7 percent.
Other changes endorsed in the referendum introduce a new position of first vice president, who will lead in the president’s absence, and also allow the president to call snap leadership polls and dissolve parliament.
Another amendment to axe the current age minimum of 35 for standing as president has been criticized by Aliyev’s opponents as a scheme to pave the way for his children to take the helm.
Aliyev has two prominent socialite daughters, Leyla, 32, and Arzu, 27, and a student son, Heydar, 19.
Opposition groups staged protests ahead of the ballot, attacking it as a bid to extend the Aliyev family’s more than two decades in office.
The authorities have dismissed the criticism, saying that constitutional reform would streamline running of the country.
Council of Europe constitutional law experts said the draft changes to the Azerbaijani constitution “would severely upset the balance of power” and give the president “unprecedented” authority.
Amnesty International said the amendments would lead to violations of the right to freedom of association and that the vote “has been accompanied by arrests and intimidation” of critics.
Aliyev, 54, has led the ex-Soviet country since his father, Heydar, a former Communist-era boss, died after a decade in power in 2003. He won a landslide election victory in 2013.
He is allowed to stand for an unlimited number of presidential terms after a previous disputed referendum in 2009 scrapped a two-term limit.
Activists have raised concerns over Azerbaijan’s poor rights record, with Human Rights Watch in May accusing the nation of cracking down on activists and critical journalists.
“President Ilham Aliyev is the person most responsible for Azerbaijan’s appalling human rights record of the last decade,” Freedom House, a pro-democracy watchdog, said last week.
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