INFORMATION
on the education and campaign on referendum appointed to 18 March 2009 related to making amendments and changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan

After the adoption of the draft of Referendum Act “on making amendments and changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan” by the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 26 December 2009, a number of activities were taken in the direction of voters’ education and explanation of the essence of the suggested amendments to the citizens.
Draft of the Referendum Act was published in official papers (“Azerbayjan”, “Khalg gazeti”, “Respublika”, “Bakinski rabochi”) and posted on web-sites of the Milli Majlis and Central Election Commission (CEC). In accordance with the draft, the comparative presentation of the parts of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan which have been put in popular vote was prepared by considering the number of the voters and delivered to nearly 5 million citizens via lower election commissions. The wishing people were provided with the relevant facilities to get these documents.
Draft of the Referendum Act and the comparative presentation prepared by the CEC were also published like posters and disseminated within the all existing Constituency and Precinct Election Commissions(Con.ECs and PECs) by being hung in well-seen areas for the voters to be familiarized with.
Permanent Commission on Law policy and State-building issues of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan prepared booklet including the explanation of the essence of the amendments and changes to the Constitution and its copies were distributed among the members of campaign groups.
Samples of the referendum ballot papers were published in Azerbaijani and English languages in official papers, the attention of the voters were drawn to them in relevant areas by being prepared like posters.
Information on calling to referendum, the date of conducting referendum and voting rules were published like posters and hung in densely-populated areas by being published like posters in 28 types. Some of the educating materials, as well as one of 4 advertising series demonstrated in TV channels were prepared by International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and the USA Agency of International Development (USAID).
Members of the CEC and officials of Secretariat conducted wide education works related to referendum process and voting procedures. On this occasion, approximately 100 speeches were made in TV and radio, more than 120 articles were published in press, a number of instructions, rules, comments, guides and other normative acts were adopted by the CEC, they were publicized via press and internet, the interested subjects were provided with possibilities to attain them. Various conferences, seminar-conferences and trainings were conducted which covered more than 31 thousands of members, specialists of the election commissions on the republic and relevant constituencies.
Executive Apparatus of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, CEC and OSCE Baku office conducted regional information sessions on the prevention of interference in referendum process in Baku, Ganja and Shirvan with the participation of the heads of all executive authorities and chairmen of Con.ECs.
Pursuant to Election Code, 9 campaign groups were registered at the CEC and 124 campaign groups at Con.ECs to conduct campaign for or against the issues put in referendum. These groups embodied more than 600 thousands of citizens having active suffrage during signature collecting process and involved these citizens in pre-referendum campaign.
Pursuant to Article 80.1, the referendum campaign groups registered by the CEC enjoyed the right to obtain free airtime in channels of Public TV and Radio Broadcasting Company. In this regard, the Company allocated free airtime for 3 hours, with 90 minutes in TV and 90 minutes in radio for campaign groups. On the day of commencing campaign – on 18 February 2009, lottery was conducted in the aim of equally allocating free airtime among 9 campaign groups. According to the results of the lottery, in radio on Wednesday and in TV on Saturday of every week, round tables were organized for explaining the draft of Referendum Act to the voters. All campaign groups fully used the allocated airtime during 4 weeks.
“Azerbayjan”, “Khalg gazeti”, “Respublika” and “Bakinski rabochi” papers allocated space for the campaign groups registered by the CEC to publish their materials freely providing that the weekly publication space not to be less than 10 %. During the campaign, all referendum subjects fully used these possibilities, too.
Each of 9 campaign groups registered by the CEC were allocated 23.300 manats by the state budget to conduct pre-referendum campaign. The campaign groups which used this money could locate their campaign materials in mass media on the paid bases.
In general, mass media gave much importance to the discussion of the draft of Referendum Act, provided a number of comments on the suggested amendments and changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, published expert opinions and the ideas of the population representatives.
Campaign groups prepared nearly 180 thousands posters and 400 thousands other publication materials calling the voters to vote for or against the amendments and changes to the Constitution, disseminated them in the selected places within the all Con.ECs and PECs by hanging or in other ways.
Pursuant to Election Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Law “on freedom of free assembly”, referendum campaign groups were allocated 4543 venues  in total with 2478 open and 2065 closed ones in cities and regions of the republic to conduct meetings with the voters. During campaign, referendum subjects conducted nearly 7 thousands meetings with citizens in these areas.
During pre-referendum campaign, campaign groups embodied more than 4 million voters by making speeches in TV, radio and press, disseminating posters and other publication materials, conducting mass activities, as well as meetings with the voters and discussions.
The campaign process which commenced on 18 February 2009 lasted for 27 days and ended on 17 March. Initial scrutiny proves that this stage has been sufficiently used, broad works have been implemented in the direction of voters’ education and comprehensive explanation of the issues put in referendum to the citizens.