G. Harutyunyan: Constitutional reform to lose its meaning unless referendum in Armenia held in spirit of law
The constitutional reform will lose its meaning unless the national referendum in Armenia is held in compliance with the letter and spirit of the law, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Gagik Harutyunyan said during a briefing today.
As regards amendments to the Electoral Code, one needs to contact those responsible for political processes in connection with the issue, G. Harutyunyan said.
“If the law is not observed, everything becomes ineffective, and a constitutional reform will be useless,” he added.
As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on August 21 sent the draft constitutional amendments to the National Assembly of Armenia. The draft was prepared by the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms adjunct to Armenian. Following the debates, on October 5 the Armenian parliament adopted the draft decision about its consent to put the document to a referendum. The parliament adopted the draft decision by a majority of the votes: 104 MPs voted in favor, 10 against, with 3 abstentions. The draft was backed by the factions of Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), opposition ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP).
Opposition factions ‘Heritage’ and ‘Armenian National Congress’ (ANC), and 2 MPs of the opposition faction ‘Orinats Yerkir’ voted against. The head of state has set December 6, 2015 as the date for the constitutional referendum.