The amendments will be made particularly in the issues regarding the parliament and president elections as well as the status of legislative, judicial and executive powers. The opposition speaks against the amendments thrust by the government, which, according to Heydar Aliyev’s opponents, aim at the creating a basis for delegating the power to his son. The opposition calls the 24 August referendum an attempt of constitutional coup. Washington also shares their concerns. OSCE US mission head Stephan Minikes stated the other day that the US “tries hard to convince the Azeri government to follow the remarks of the OSCE Bureau of democracy and human rights regarding the prospective constitutional amendments”. At that, Stephan Minikes noted “he does not believe in the ability of the election committees of the country to conduct a referendum according to the international standards”. The conviction of that was given rise to with the last election that the American diplomat evaluated as undemocratic ones.
It should be reminded the US State Department annual report on human rights in the world states in 1998 Heydar Aliyev was reelected president as a result of a quite arguable election with many violations of the election code. The document also states about serious violations in the course of the parliamentary election in 2000 November. PACE vice president, monitoring committee co-reporter on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross is even harsher with his evaluations of the Azeri election standards. He stated “I have never seen such falsifications that I faced in Baku in the process of the observation of the elections”. Gross also has extremely critical attitude to coming referendum on the constitution. So does the OSCE.
It would be naïve to think Heydar Aliyev would follow the insistent advice stated in America and Europe and would refuse his plans on remaking the constitution for his son. The fact that the West expressed its extremely negative attitude to the Heydar Aliyev’s constitutional amendments long before the referendum conducting is an evidence of that the attempt of the legitimization of the scenario of delegating the authority to the “successor to the throne” has no perspectives.
