Azerbaijan, Baku Dec. 26 / corr Trend K.Zarbalayeva, I.Kahalilova / In its Friday sitting the Azerbaijani parliament defined the date of referendum to be held in connection with changes and supplements to the Constitution.
Thus, Milli Majlis made a decision to hold the referendum on March 18.
Azerbaijani Parliament's commission on legal policy and state building and the commission on human rights developed the draft Referendum Act on Supplements and Changes to the Constitution and the bill was adopted at the parliamentary sitting last week.
The bill was sent to the Constitution Court for assessment.
On Dec. 24 a plenum of the Constitution Court gave its positive conclusion to the draft Referendum Act on changes and supplements to the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic, considering these changes and supplements relevant to Article 155 of the Constitution.
Proposals about changes or abolition in Articles 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 and 21, about restriction or abolition of human and citizen's rights and freedoms envisaged in Chapter 3 of the present Constitution or to higher degree than it is specified in international treaties Azerbaijan Republic is a party too cannot be a subject of referendum.
In accordance with the bill, Paragraph 5 in Article 101 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic, which prohibited a person from being elected President repeatedly more than two times, was withdrawn from the Constitution.
Instead, the Parliament included a Paragraph stipulating for postponement of presidential elections in case of the country wages military operations.
Other changes to the constitution are related to specifying the rights and status of former presidents; renaming the National Bank of Azerbaijan into the Central Bank, the Executive Office of the President in Presidential Administration.
Changes in the text of the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic may be made only by way of referendum (Article 152). If proposals about changes in the text of Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic are presented by Milli Majlis (Parliament) or the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, then Constitutional Court of the Azerbaijan Republic should give its conclusion beforehand (Article 153).
The term of office of the president is five years. Azerbaijani Constitution was adopted in 1995 and amended and supplemented in 2002.
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