REFERENDUM ON CONSTITUTION
Davit Mikaelian

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
11 Dec 2006

The underlying political event in the country is the preparations for
the referendum on the NKR Constitution, considering the international
political and moral importance of the document. As soon as the
president signed the decree on appointing the referendum on December
10, the Central Election Committee got down to the preparations for the
referendum. The first decision of the CEC was to prepare the electoral
registers. Then, according to the chair of the CEC Sergey Nasibian,
considering that the draft can be published in newspapers within 25
days before the voting, booklets with the draft were published.

Sergey Nasibian said in the beginning the propaganda was spontaneous
but soon the process normalized and became available to everyone. The
chair of the committee said 22 electoral districts and 276 polling
stations were formed in the country. An equal number of divisional
commissions were set up. On the day of the voting a polling station
will be opened at the permanent representation of NKR to Armenia. The
CEC has already confirmed the sample ballot, which contains information
on how to vote. There are 90 thousand voters in NKR, and the results
of the voting will be valid if the turnout is over 60 thousand.

It became known during the recent meeting of the CEC that besides the
local observers over 100 foreign observers will be invited. Several
dozens of reporters will arrive to cover the constitutional referendum
in NKR. 40 million drams has been allocated for preparing and holding
the referendum.