Azeri President Unveils Plan to Amend Constitution

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday unveiled plans to amend the country’s constitution that would prolong the presidential term from five to seven years and introduce the newly created posts of first vice president and vice president.

Azerbaijan's Constitutional Court will rule on the amendments within the coming days, after which they will be put to a national referendum.

Critics of the amendments charge that Aliyev’s proposals are meant to permanently entrench his and his family's complete dominance over the small, energy-rich South Caucasus nation.

The amendments would also grant Aliyev the power to schedule early presidential elections and dissolve parliament within one year if the government loses two no-confidence votes or if it rejects his nominees to the Constitutional and Supreme courts, as well as the board of Azerbaijan’s Central Bank.

The minimum age for presidential candidates would be abolished and the age for election to parliament lowered by seven years to 18.

Aliyev has been in power since 2003, following the death of his father, Heidar. The younger Aliyev’s rule has followed in the footsteps of his KGB father, who ruled the country with an iron fist while courting outside investment and using oil revenues to prop up Azerbaijan’s shaky economy.

As energy prices have plummeted over the last 18 months, concerns by opposition and pro-democracy forces in Azerbaijan fear that Aliyev will become even more authoritarian as he attempts to suppress dissent as living standards and real income fall.

By Nicholas Waller