Amendments to Constitution - Return to Totalitarianism

Plenum of the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan will consider the draft of the Act on the referendum on amendments to the Constitution on July 25.

Recall that the project is presented to the Constitutional Court by the Head of State for a legal opinion.

The changes include the expansion of presidential powers, giving him the right to appoint the first Vice-President and Vice-Presidents without the consent of anyone, dissolve parliament, and appoint a special election of the President. In addition, the presidential term of office will be extended from 5 to 7 years.

The well-known lawyer Fuad Agayev said that the document, if adopted, would have a negative impact on the protection of rights and freedoms and the principle of separation of powers, and restrict democracy.

This raises questions about the procedure and the draft amendments.

According to the law on normative legal acts, development of projects, the referendum acts should be of a planned character. So, the project should be included in the President and Parliament agreed annual plan of legislative work.

After the development of the referendum act, the project should be made public with the application of expert opinions and submitted for public discussion. In addition, the project should receive a legal examination.

Analyzing the proposed amendments, Agayev divided them into two groups:

1) amendments related to the organization of public authorities and the armed forces;

2) changes associated with human rights and freedoms.

Agayev notes that at first glance, the amendment proposed to Article 9 is of an editorial nature. According to the current Constitution, for its security Azerbaijan creates the Armed Forces and other armed groups, and the President is the commander of the Armed Forces.

According to the proposed amendments, the Armed Forces consist of the Army and other armed groups. Now the President becomes Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, including the army, the riot troops, MES and others.

Also unclear is the abolition of the minimum age requirement for the MP election, for the qualification is applied for persons with appropriate education and experience.

The expert is also critical of amendments to Part 1 of Article 89 of the Constitution, extending the deprivation of a deputy's powers. Also added is violation by MPs of the ethical code that can be used for opposition MPs.

Agayev also believes regressive amendments to dissolve the Parliament by the President, in the event that during the year the Milli Majlis twice expresses distrust to the Cabinet, or rejects candidates for the Constitutional and Supreme Courts and the Central Bank.

In the future, if the Parliament receives representatives of the opposition, pro-government MPs will be able to artificially create a situation that allows the President to dissolve the Parliament.

Puzzling is also the elimination of the 35-year minimum qualifications for a presidential candidate. That is, even an 18-year-old man can become President.

And extension of the presidential term from 5 to 7 years in an environment where there are no restrictions on the election of one and the same man as the head of state already leads the country toward totalitarianism, Agayev said.

In addition, the President is entitled to appoint a special election of the head of state, allowing it to favorable time for himself to hold elections for his own re-election or election of the candidate he supports.

The most controversial amendment is the establishment of the post of First Vice-president and Vice-presidents, who are also appointed and dismissed by the President.

It turns out that the leading positions in the state will be appointed and not approved (as opposed to the Prime Minister and members of the Constitutional Court) even by the Parliament.

The same applies to the transfer of power to the First Vice-president.

Agayev believes regressive the provision allowing withdrawal of land for social justice and because of its ineffective use.

In addition, the expert says about the anti-democratic conditions for the deprivation of Azerbaijani citizenship. He believes that the above returns the country to the tradition of Soviet totalitarianism. -06D-