Campaign for constitutional reform referendum starts in Armenia
The Central Election Commission of Armenia (CEC) held a special sitting today. The schedule of the main events related to the upcoming referendum on the constitutional reform in Armenia was discussed at the sitting.
Thus, the campaign for the referendum starts today, on October 10, and ends on December 4.
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 President. 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.