Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 24/ Trend , J. Babayeva/ The Azerbaijani people will decide themselves whether Azerbaijan needs changes to the Constitution, Ali Hasanov, chief of the Public and Political Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, said to reporters.
"The changes to the Constitution are public and political initiative which gained support. Everyone has a right to support or oppose these changes," Hasanov said.
The Plenum of the Constitutional Court will consider referendum action on Changes and Supplements to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Dec. 24.
Last week the Azerbaijani parliament removed Constitutional article restricting election of a person as president more than twice.
On Dec. 18, 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. The term of office of the president is five years. Azerbaijani Constitution was adopted in 1995 and amended and supplemented in 2002. Other changes to the constitution are related to Article 108 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).
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