Thursday, March 19

Votes have been casted, numbers counted, and the results?

There is one thing to say, the voting for constitutional amendments were full of surprises! Well, according to the Central Electoral Commission about 90% of voters supported the amendments (surprise!) And the highest number of votes (91.87%)went of course for the amendment on the lifting the restriction on electing one person president for more than two times (double surprise!). 

The head of the Central Electoral Commission, Mazahir Panahov, further concludes that although there were some "minor" violations, overall the voting process went smooth (surprise!). Lets see how smooth things really were:

- According to Radio Liberty reports from yesterday on the voting process, a number of violations were in place: anything from not letting journalists into the polling stations to ballot stuffing and multiple voting. 

- According to the chairman of the Musavat Party, Isa Qambar, the commission didn't even meet the minimum required turnout of 25% and that the results were rigged. Less than 15% of voters showed up says Mr. Qambar. The accusations of ballot rigging were dismissed by Ali Ahmadov, deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan Party (surprise again!) in the following statement: 

"They make the same kind of statements at every election. However, they always fail to present concrete facts" 

So, what do we have as a result: based on either rigged or actual numbers, the amendments passed and are deemed valid. Congratulations everyone, now we have an eternal president! Yet, I am being told to be patient and that change will come eventually! I am patient (or at least trying to) my friends, but there are limits to everything, don't you think? 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the authorities should learn the concept of percent value to draw the longbow :)

Arzu Geybulla said...

Good idea! Though not sure who would dare to teach them :)