Milli Majlis adopted a Law “on Procedure for the use of the right of citizens to initiate legislation”

On October 22, 2019, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopted a new law "on Procedure for the use of the right of citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan to legislative initiative" (Law). The purpose of this Law is to determine the procedure for the right of citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan to exercise legislative initiative as established by Article 96 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Article 96) states that the right to initiate legislation (the right to submit bills and other issues for consideration by Parliament) belongs to 40,000 citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to Article 4.1 of the Law, in order to benefit from citizens right to initiate a bill, an Initiative Group shall be formed by at least 300 citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan who have the right to submit the project to Parliament. Furthermore, members of the Initiative Group must collect signatures of at least 40,000 eligible voters of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the signature collection must cover at least 60 constituencies and at least 500 signatures must be collected from each constituency.