Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 19/ Trend , J. Babayeva/ The Central Election Commissions (CEC) will hold referendum and register groups after referendum is announced by Milli Majlis (parliament) and President, Natiq Mammadov, secretary of the Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan, said to Trend .
Azerbaijani parliament lifted restriction in the Constitution prohibiting one person from being elected President more than twice.
On Dec. 19, Azerbaijani Parliament's Commission on legal Policy and State Building and Commission on Human Rights adopted at a joint meeting the Referendum Action on Supplements and Changes to the Constitution and submitted it to the Parliament for consideration. At the initiative of the Speaker Ogtay Asadov, the Parliament removed Paragraph 5 from Article 101 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic, which prohibited a person from being elected President repeatedly more than two times.
Instead, the Parliament included a Paragraph stipulating for postponement of presidential elections in case of the country wages military operations.
The governing New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) suggested a referendum to eliminate the restriction prohibiting a person from being elected president more than two times. Several political parties represented at the Parliament, public organizations and intellectuals supported the proposal.
The term of office of the president is five years. Azerbaijani Constitution was adopted in 1995 and amended and supplemented in 2002.
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).
Mammadov said President and Milli Majlis will decide to hold referendum after conclusion of the Constitutional Court. The referendum is held at least 75 days after it is announced.
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