2009 Azerbaijani constitutional referendum

none A constitutional referendum was held in Azerbaijan on 18 March 2009.https://www.rferl.org/a/Azerbaijani_Parliament_Approves_Referendum_On_Presidential_Term_Limit/1364057.html Azerbaijani Parliament Approves Referendum On Presidential Term Limit Rferl.org 2008-12-26 2013-09-22 The referendum, initiated by the authoritarian Ilham Aliyev regime, asked the voters whether they approved of 29 measures. The most controversial of these included a measure to abolish presidential term limits, enabling Aliyev to run for president beyond two terms, and a measure to greatly restrict press freedom. The measures passed, with approval of measures between 87.14% and 91.76%, disapproval between 4.59% and 7.24% and invalid votes between 3.64% and 5.70%; the turnout was 71.08%.http://www.infocenter.gov.az/v3/index.php "Seçkilər" İnformasiya Mərkəzi Infocenter.gov.az 2013-09-22 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20081013135733/http://www.infocenter.gov.az/v3/index.php 2008-10-13 http://www.infocenter.gov.az/v3/sesverme_2009.php "Seçkilər" İnformasiya Mərkəzi Infocenter.gov.az 2013-09-22 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20130202052406/http://www.infocenter.gov.az/v3/sesverme_2009.php 2013-02-02 The referendum was marred by fraud.2016-09-26 Azerbaijan Holds Controversial Constitutional Referendum en Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-referendums-constitutional-changes-aliyev/28012681.html This provision of the constitutional amendment was condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, which stated that "As a rule, it can be said that the abolition of existing limits preventing the unlimited re-election of a President is a step back, in terms of democratic achievements".Venice Commission Questions Constitutional Changes In AzerbaijanOpinion No. 518/2008 "OPINION ON THE DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN" Venice, 13-14 March 2009 Professor Wojciech Sadurski, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Law of Sydney University, in his legal opinion stated that the conduct of the Azeri government in the adoption of the amendment violated the principle of transparency and that it constituted a breach of European law under the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the international law.http://humanrights.blogactiv.eu/2013/07/22/legal-opinion-ahead-of-elections-in-azerbaijan/ Legal opinion ahead of elections in Azerbaijan 2013-11-22 2021-06-13 https://web.archive.org/web/20210613152536/https://humanrights.blogactiv.eu/2013/07/22/legal-opinion-ahead-of-elections-in-azerbaijan/ dead http://www.eap-csf.eu/en/news-events/articles-analytics/legal-opinion/ Legal opinion on constitutional changes concerning presidential elections in Azerbaijan by Prof. Sadurski 2013-11-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20140201172151/http://www.eap-csf.eu/en/news-events/articles-analytics/legal-opinion/ 2014-02-01 dead The amendment was also criticized by the Azerbaijani opposition.http://iwpr.net/report-news/opposition-condemns-changes-azeri-constitution Opposition Condemns Changes to Azeri Constitution 2013-11-22 2013-12-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001020/http://iwpr.net/report-news/opposition-condemns-changes-azeri-constitution dead On the basis of the amendment in 2013, Ilham Aliyev ran for president for the third time. References Azerbaijan Category:Referendums in Azerbaijan Category:Constitutional referendums in Azerbaijan Constitutional Category:Term limit abolition referendums Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results Category:March 2009 in Europe Category:March 2009 in Asia