Leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan has informed President Serzh Sargsyan that PAP does not mull joining the ruling coalition, and the party's prior task is to develop the country and improve the living standards, Vartan Oskanian, MP from PAP, said in an interview with Kentron TV.
He said PAP is against constitutional reform. And at the 10 April meeting with President Sargsyan, PAP Leader Gagik Tsarukyan said his party is against the constitutional reform at the given stage amid dozens of unresolved problems in the country, Oskanian said.
To recall, the Presidential Committee for Constitutional Reform has made public a preliminary concept of the project of constitutional reforms that feature transition to the parliamentary system of government in Armenia. The document, particularly, calls to expand the parliament's supervisory powers, authorize the legislative body to elect the president for a 7-year term. The authors of the project offer changes to the system of the presidential election. The presidential contenders must be non-party men, which will make them impartial arbiters for the legislative and executive powers. The new reforms will give the president a role of an arbiter with no executive powers. The authors of the project of constitutional reform explain such 'innovations' with the intention to de-monopolize the power, as a super-powerful president enjoying the support of the parliamentary majority inherently grasps the power. Meanwhile, the Committee members say a president having no party belonging will not be able to monopolize the power in the country.