Results of Constitutional Referendum to be announced by October 21
Results of the Referendum on amendments to Azerbaijan’s Constitution will be announced before October 21, Azerbaijan’s Central Election commission said during its meeting on July 27.
The Referendum was scheduled for September 26.
The referendum merely needs 25 percent turnout of voters to be passed. The last constitutional referendum in the country was held on March 18, 2009.
President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on submitting the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan” to the Constitutional Court on July 18. The amendments propose to introduce positions of first vice-president and vice-president in Azerbaijan. The changes envisage that these appointments will be made by the president of the country. It is also proposed to eliminate the minimum age limit for a presidential candidate, which is now set at 35 years and to extend the office term of the president from 5 years to 7 years. The changes also envisage that the president will be able to declare extraordinary election of the president of Azerbaijan.
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.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz