Azerbaijani president sets date of snap presidential election

Azerbaijani President Ilham Alyiev has signed a decree setting the date of an early presidential election.

According to the decree, the election will be held on April 11.

The Central Election Commission is instructed to facilitate the election in accordance with the country’s Election Code.

As it was announced previously, acting president Ilham Alyiev will be the candidate from the ruling party. He won presidential elections for three times running: in 2003, 2008, and 2013. The presidential election was supposed to be held on October 17.

The president was granted the right to appoint snap elections under amendments to the constitution passed at a referendum on September 26, 2016. In the end of last year, the Election Code was amended with a provision that date of a snap presidential election can be set not later than 60 days before the voting day.