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Azerbaijani Constitutional Court considering draft amendments to constitution (UPDATE)

Politics Materials 25 July 2016 10:53 (UTC +04:00)

Details added (first version posted at 10:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Azerbaijani Constitutional Court has started the procedure to consider the draft amendments to the country’s constitution at the plenary session July 25.

The session was opened by Farhad Abdullayev, chairman of the Azerbaijani Constitutional Court.

Abdullayev said that the session is being held with the participation of eight judges.

Shahin Aliyev, head of the department of legislation and legal expertise of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, also attends the session.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree July 18 on submitting the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan” to the Constitutional Court.

It is proposed to establish first vice-president and vice-president positions in Azerbaijan. First vice-president and vice-presidents are appointed and dismissed by Azerbaijan’s president.

Also, it is proposed to remove “not younger than 35” in Article 100 on requirements to candidates to the post of the president of Azerbaijan: “Citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic not younger than 35, permanently living on the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic longer than 10 years, possessing voting right, without previous conviction, having no liabilities in other states, with university degree, not having double citizenship may be elected the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.”

Moreover, it is proposed to make amendments to the part 1 of Article 101 on procedure of elections of the president of Azerbaijan, according to which it is planned to extend the office term of the president from 5 years to 7 years.

At the same time, it is proposed to add the following words to the part 1 of the Article 101: “Azerbaijan’s president can declare extraordinary election of Azerbaijan’s president”.

Moreover, the following amendments have been proposed:

To replace “within three months” with “during the period of 60 days “ in Article 105 on implementation of powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic on his resignation: “Whenever the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns from his post ahead of time, extraordinary elections of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic are held within three months.”

To replace “prime minister” with “first vice-president” in the following sentence: “In such case, until new President of the Azerbaijan Republic is elected, the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.”

To replace “prime minister” with “first vice-president in the second part of this article: “If during the said term the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic carrying out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, Chairman of Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.”

At the same time, according to the amendments to this article, if the first vice-president resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, vice-president of Azerbaijan gets the status of the first vice-president and carries out duties of the president.

Additionally, according to the proposed amendments, persons who have the right to participate in the elections (at the age of 18) can be elected to Milli Majlis. Previously, persons no younger than 25, had the right to be elected to the parliament.

It is also proposed to add an article on dissolution of parliament, rights to conclude interstate and intergovernmental international agreements, responsibilities of municipalities and others.

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