Free Democrats party: It’s still early to speak about results of meeting with Armenian president
Representatives of ‘Free Democrats’ Party presented their position on the draft new Constitution of Armenia during the meeting held with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan yesterday, August 27, as part of consultations on the constitutional reform.
“We received an invitation to participate in a meeting and discuss the draft. We see no problem in expressing our stance in the presidential residence. If there are any meaningful proposals, you should express your positions, rather than just say no and let society fail to understand what omissions and shortcomings the submitted draft contains. The latter is unacceptable to us,” the party member Anzhela Khachatryan told Panorama.am.
Free Democrats Party earlier issued a statement saying that the party is opposed to the submitted draft Constitution of Armenia.
“The submitted draft has a number of unacceptable clauses, but we pointed out three most important ones that should be changed. The draft in its current form is unacceptable to us,” she said.
Anzhela Khachatryan said the meeting with the head of state took place in a normal atmosphere, but ‘it is still early to speak about its results and effectiveness”.
To remind, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan submitted on August 21 the draft amendments in the Constitution of Armenia to the National Assembly. The draft amendments had been developed by the Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President. Vardan Poghosyan, a member of the Commission, has been appointed as official representative of Armenian President for presentation of the draft amendments to the Constitution in the National Assembly of Armenia. The head of state also instructed the Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President to continue the dialog with the Venice Commission (VC) over those issues indicated in the VC’s preliminary opinion, around which no agreed solutions have been found so far.
Besides, this week Serzh Sargsyan already held consultations on the approaches stated in the draft new Constitution with representatives of Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), ARF-Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD), Orinats Yerkir Party, Armenian All-National Movement (HHSh), the Christian-Democratic Union, and Free Democrats Party. The opposition party Heritage declined to meet with the head of state.