Constitutional reforms: Political parties split over proposals
The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is among the political forces that has not submitted written proposals on the constitutional reforms to the corresponding committee of specialists.
Speaking to Tert.am, Vahram Baghdasaryan, the head of the party’s political faction in parliament, said their members are aware of the entire process and developments, having taken part in all the debates conducted by the commission.
May 5 is assigned as the deadline for submission of proposals.
After discussions at regional and district administrations, the package was submitted to the president on October 15. It was later made public.
Members of the Republican Party do not rule out the possibility of further debates over the semi-presidential and parliamentary forms of government.
The concept earlier received approval by the Venice Commission, which said that the reforms in question were in line with their positions.
Of the political forces which took part in the political consultations with President Serzh Sargsyan, only two – the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D) and the Christian Democratic Party – have submitted proposals.
The latter’s views have been incorporated in the document’s amended version. “I am now working on the proposals’ final draft, so we will probably submit it to the commission tomorrow,” said Khosrov Harutyunyan, the party’s leader.
Asked what specific issues the draft focuses on, the politician replied that they have proposed clear-cut definitions for the concepts “state” and “state authority”, as well as “state obligations” and “state responsibility”.
The ARF-D, which was the first to propose a reforms concept (the party submitted 10 proposals to the Constitutional Court back in January), called for revising the structure and activities of the legislative and the procedures of its formation, as well as the activities of the cabinet and the prime minister, the judiciary and local government bodies. It also emphasized the need of enlarging political parties.
As for the Rule of Law, the comments given by the head of that political force’s parliamentary faction did not make clear whether or not they have proposed any amendments. “We’ll speak of the tomorrow,” Heghine Bisharyan told Tert.am.
None of the other political forces have submitted proposals so far.
Armen Martirosyan, a deputy leader of the opposition Heritage party, says they do not intend to take any active steps unless they see their earlier proposals implemented (according to him, they could have been approved without constitutional changes).
“A move to adopt our reforms would have signified a political willingness, as well as a desire by the authorities to implement reforms, instead of securing yet another mechanism of reproduction. Besides, it would have mitigated the existing distrust in the authorities and bridged the legitimacy gap. But as authorities have not accepted those proposals, we will not join any debates to consider the content,” he added.
The Free Democrats party’s leader, Angela Khachatryan, says they haven’t finalized their positions to submit any document to the commission. “As no final option is available at the moment, a proposal by any party would imply that it is submitting its own version of constitutional amendments. But that isn’t normal for us,” she said, adding that the party is now planning to wait until the constitutional referendum.
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