Armenia needs no constitutional reforms, especially such radical ones, Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, has told 2rd.am.
"All the challenges and issues faced by the country can be well addressed within the framework of the current Constitution, whose functionality is not questioned. The new draft Constitution has exceeded all my worst expectations. The matter does not even concern a choice between the semi-presidential and parliamentary regimes. The draft Constitution may result in transition to a de facto single-party system, i.e. in a political monopoly and standstill. The Soviet Constitution contained a lot of nice words, however, the 6th article about the leading role of the Communist Party legalized the political monopoly of the communists. Everyone knows how the USSR ended up," says Kocharyan.
He says the draft Constitution's nice wordings about the human rights and social objectives of the state are a camouflage for the totally unacceptable method of formation of the National Assembly. "Article 89 of the draft Constitution is to ensure the domineering of one party in the Parliament. It will be the party that has administrative and financial resources regardless of its popularity. Amid the absolute lack of intra-party democracy in Armenia, patronage governance will become inevitable evil, a source of standstill and a tool of retention of the evil system. As a matter of fact, the draft makes the political monopoly a constitutional standard," says Kocharyan, noting that he would not like Armenia to have such a future. Therefore, he comes out against the constitutional reforms. "A big mistake is being made and its consequences will be rather dangerous for the future of Armenia," he says.