BRIEF INFORMATION
on the preparations to referendum

Central Election Commission (CEC) took all necessary steps in regard with the preparations to the voting day. The draft of the referendum act and the comparative presentation prepared by the CEC were published like booklets in millions circulations, they were delivered to the addresses, published like posters and hung within the all existing Constituency and Precinct Election Commissions (Con.ECs and PECs) for the voters to be familiarized with. CEC members and officials of Secretariat conducted broad education works concerning referendum process and voting procedures, nearly 100 speeches were made on TV and radio, more than 120 articles were published in press. A number of conferences, seminar-conferences and trainings involving more than 31 thousands members and specialists of election commissions were conducted.
Referendum is to be conducted in 125 constituencies and 5367 precincts. Referendum will be observed by more than 47 thousands domestic observers, as well as by 177 international observers representing 28 organizations and 23 countries. The rank of international observers include the observation missions of the European Council and Commonwealth of Independent States, parliamentary delegations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, the Ukraine and some other countries. Furthermore, the representatives of the embassies of the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Norway, Italy, Poland, Finland and other countries to Azerbaijan will also join the observation process.
To inform the popularity on the voting process from time to time, mass media was provided with the all facilities to prepare the material on the all existing precincts. Referendum will be enlightened by the representatives of 20 foreign mass media including Reuters, BBC, Blumberg, TRT, France Press, EPA, Anadolu, Ihlas Haber Ajansi and Le Figaro.
Popular vote will be initiated on 18 March at 8.00 a.m. and ended at 19.00 p.m. The population will be informed on the voting procedure five times during the day.  After the vote counting ends, the data on the precincts will be posted on the CE web-site.
In order to ensure transparency, web-cameras will be installed in 500 polling stations. Any person from the republic or abroad can enter the CEC web-site and follow the voting and vote counting process on live.

17 March 2009
Press Service of the Central Election
Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan