No Constitution is able to make Armenia a more democratic and law-governed country, unless there is a political will for that, said Naira Zohrabyan, Secretary of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Faction in the Parliament, opposing Gagik Haroutiunyan, Head of the Constitutional Court, when discussing the draft concept of Constitutional reform, Thursday.
Haroutiunyan said that many chapters in the Constitution of Armenia remain on paper for lack of a relevant legal system for their fulfillment. The Constitutional reform seeks to liquidate those legal shortcomings, he said.
Zohrabyan disagreed with him. "If observed appropriately, the Constitution of Armenia will ensure such Armenia as described in Article 1 of the Basic Law," she 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.