Azerbaijan’s constitutional court has ruled that President Ilham Aliyev’s request to dissolve the national assembly and call early general elections is legal.
In an agreement released by the court on 4 December it is said that the judges had discussed and ruled on the matter and the decision is “binding, cannot be abolished, changed or appealed."
Based on the constitutional court’s ruling, President Aliyev must announce the dates for early parliamentary elections.
For the first time in history, Azerbaijan will hold snap general elections.
The next parliamentary elections were to be held in November 2020.
On November 28, the political council of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), which holds a majority in parliament, put forward a motion to dissolve the parliament and hold snap elections, and therefore asked to convene a meeting.
On December 2, parliament decided to appeal to the president to call early elections to the parliament. In turn, the president sent a request to the constitutional court asking whether the parliament’s dissolution is permissable or not.
The dissolution of the national assembly is linked to support for president-initiated reforms. Recently Aliyev replaced many cabinet ministers with new officials. "The parliament should not be left out of the process of enlarging reforms in the country, but instead should set an example of statehood so that it embraces the legislative body, too," Bahar Muradova, deputy chair of the parliament was quoted as saying.