On Monday, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, sent a bill to the Constitutional Court proposing to introduce the office of the Vice President in Azerbaijan.
According to the amendment, the Vice President will be appointed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Conditions for potential Vice Presidents include but are not limited to:
– he or she must be a citizen of Azerbaijan;
– he or she must have a higher education;
– he or she must have the right to vote;
– he or she may not have any obligations to other foreign governments;
Before the changes made to the constitution, in the event of the President’s resignation or other factors which might have impeded the President’s ability to act, the Prime Minister would have been designated the executive authority in the country. Now, according to the potential changes in the constitution, the Vice President will fulfill the duties of the President in the case of his absence.
In the event of both the President and the Vice President being unable to fulfill their duties, the chairman of the National Assembly will be appointed as the acting President of Azerbaijan.
During his or her term, the Vice President of Azerbaijan will be inviolable. That is, the vice – president of Azerbaijan will not be subject to investigation, can not be called to court, can not be searched or declared wanted. If the Vice President of Azerbaijan commits a crime and is caught in the act, the arresting authorities are obliged to inform the Attorney General of Azerbaijan.
Other changes in the constitutional amendment propose to extend the term of President from five to seven years, and to lower the mandatory age of presidential candidates from 35 to 25.
