AZERBAIJAN - Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on amendments and changes to the Electoral Code adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections and the Venice Commission
An amendment to Article 181.1 reduces the number of signatures required for presidential elections from 45,000 to 40,000. This reduction is positive and partially addresses a previous recommendation. However, the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission have also recommended that Article 181.2 be amended to permit each voter to provide signatures for more than one potential candidate. The elimination of the possibility for candidates to pay a deposit in lieu of collecting signatures makes the failure to address this recommendation of potentially greater impact for the registration of candidates, despite the reduction in the number of required signatures.
