President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a law on amendments to the Election Code.

Kanal24 reports that one of the changes in the Election Code gives the Central Election Commission the right to punish deputies.

According to Article 175 (Adoption of a Decision on Disenfranchisement of Deputies of the Milli Majlis of their Mandates) of the Code in force to date, in the cases mentioned in Item 2 (on giving up the citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic or accepting other citizenship) of Part I of Article 89 (Deprivation of deputies of Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic of their mandates and loss of powers by the deputy of Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic), Item 4 (on taking position in state bodies, post in religious organizations, involvement in business, commercial or other paid activity (except scientific, pedagogical and creative activity), Item 5 (on a voluntary basis), the Central Election Commission shall adopt a decision on the deprivation of the deputy from the mandate.

The appeal shall be considered within 15 days. Judgement of the Appeal Court may be appealed to the Supreme Court within ten (10) days after its full submission. This appeal shall be reviewed within 15 days.

In the cases mentioned in Items 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Article 89 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the deputy elected on single-mandate constituency shall be deemed as deprived of the mandate from the day of adoption of the decision by the Central Election Commission.

According to the amendments made in Article 176.4 of the Code, additional elections on the relevant single-mandate constituency shall be determined within one month after the mandate of the deputy is left vacant.