Tuesday, August 11 2015 17:46

Vardan Oskanian, the former Minister of Exterior, Member of Parliament have presented 10 reasons why the society shall voteagainst the constitution reforms.

He thinks that at this moment the country lacks a political crisis and respectively there is no need of such reforms. Moreover, to his mind the current Constitution, in case of its fare application, is the most optimum option for Armenia. Also, Oskanyan thinks that the political atmosphere in the country is not favorable for such changes, since there is no consolidation around this idea. "The political forces are also not sufficiently realized in order to become the bases of the system of government", the Deputy mentioned.

Oskanian also mentioned that the lack of credit of trust to the ruling regime overshades both the reforms and the referendum itself, the outcomes of which will give rise to mistrust anyway. "Apparently, the constitution reforms are initiated aimed at retention of the authority of a single person and single party", the politician says. He thinks that the draft new Constitution submitted by the professional committee contains various contradictions and threats. Particularly, he mentioned issues of forming sustainable majority, as well as possibility to make changes in the Constitution by 2/3 votes of the Parliament, uncertainty related to the Military Commander-in-Chief, as well as possible changes to the election code, which would be sham.

The politician also mentioned that Armenia is the only country among the former USSR states which wishes to move to the parliamentary government regime. "There is no such system used or proven itself both in the region and among the CIS", he says. Moreover, Oskanyan mentioned that the country with such system of government, where the top public official has no serious authorities, and the Prime Minister is completely depending on the parliamentary majority would not be able to run efficient external policy.
The professional Committee on Constitutional Reforms has published the 15 chapters of the RA draft Constitution on August 4. The first 7 Chapters of the draft Constitution were published on July 15, which resulted in equivocal reactions among the Armenian society, experts and political forces. The draft constitutional reforms initiated by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan imply a switch to a parliamentary regime. According to the new draft Constitution, the Prime Minister becomes the commander-in-chief in the times of war.  The President becomes an arbitrator assuring natural implementation of the Constitution of the country. The President is elected by a board consisting of parliamentarians and representatives of local administrations, then he/she appoints the Prime Minister represented by the Parliamentary Majority.  The President shall be non- partisan and can be elected for seven years one term only. The Parliament is formed by means of proportional elections and consists of at least 101 members.