Thursday, 25 December 2008On December 18, the head of Azerbaijan’s ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) called for making amendment to the Azerbaijan Constitution and lifting of the two terms limit on the presidential terms. During the parliamentary session Ali Ahmadov, Secretary of the ruling party, said that two terms limit is against the will of the population to elect the person for the third time, whom they want, and deprives citizen from this right. For that reason he called for parliament to discuss helding referendum for changing Azerbaijani Constitution to lift terms limit.
Most of the members of the Azerbaijani Parliament supported this proposal. Mikhail Zabelin, Deputy of Parliament, member of the political board of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party and the chairman of the Russian community in Azerbaijan said during his interview to Novosti-Azerbaijan that, "Imagine that if we deprive Ilham Aliyev of the right to run for presidency for the next term, we can thus pose a threat to Azerbaijan's movement in the sphere of democracy, economy, by electing a person of lower level as compared to Ilham Aliyev".
According to Article 101/5 of Azerbaijani Constitution, no one has a right to be elected as president more than twice. Article 152 stressed that the change on the constitution can be made only by referendum. The opinion of the Constitutional Court to change the constitution has to be expressed. Because of that reason they presented this proposal to the Azerbaijani Constitutional Court.
According to the Today.Az news agency of Azerbaijan, opposition parties in Azerbaijan continue to act against the draft proposal for amendment to the constitution. The Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, Musavat Party and a number of other opposition parties are holding discussions to conduct a protest. However, on December 24, despite the objection from the opposition party Azerbaijani Constitutional Court approved the draft proposal to make amendment to the constitution, which will remove the limit on the presidential terms. According to the Constitutional Court decision a person have a right to run for the presidence for more than twice. According to Ria Novosti, Farkhad Abdullayev said that the Constitutional Court had ruled the bill to extend presidential term limits was not in breach of Azerbaijani law, and "a referendum could be held."
On December 26, in parliamentary session the decision for the national referendum to approve the decision of the Constitutional Court will be held. The draft amendment also contains the postponing the presidential and parliamentary election during war condition, making municipal authorities accountable to parliament and renaming the National Bank as the Central Bank.
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Thursday, 25 December 2008
Shamkhal Abilov
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