A constitutional referendum was held in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

on 24 August 2002. The referendum was initiated by the authoritarian Heydar Aliyev regime. Voters were asked eight separate questions, all of which were approved with at least 96% voting in favour. The referendum was marred by

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

Background

On 22 June 2002 President

Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev (10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to ...

proposed 39 amendments to 23 articles of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. In accordance with articles 3 and 152, the amendments required a referendum to take place, with a turnout at least 50%.Azerbaijan, 24 August 2002: Changes in terms of joining the European Council
Direct Democracy The proposal was approved by the Constitutional Court on 21 June. On 24 July the Central Election Commission ruled that the 39 amendments would be covered by eight separate questions, despite demands from the opposition that each amendment be voted on separately. On 30 August the commission made a ruling that absolute voting figures would not be published, only the percentages. On 29 July the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

voted by 94 to 5 to adopt the amendments.

Proposals

Results

References

{{Azerbaijani elections

Referendums in Azerbaijan Constitutional referendums in Azerbaijan

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results