Tuesday, August 11 2015 13:22

The draft constitutional amendments are legally imperfect and bear nothing to do with the interests of the Armenian people and statehood, says Garnik Isagoulyan, the former adviser of the president for the national security affairs, the leader of the National Security Party.  Isagoulyan said he asked specific questions to the authors of the draft Chairman of the Constitutional Court Gagik Haroutiunyan, Vardan Poghosyan, Hrayr Tovmasyan and Gevorg Danelyan, and received no answers to his questions. 

Isagoulyan is sure that the new Constitution is ordered from above. It lacks "any basis for the protection of democracy and human rights and just says that human rights protection is laid on the public authorities, not the state authorities. What does 'public authority' mean is not determined anywhere in the text of the new Constitution."

The expert says that the new text says nothing about the supreme commander in the country, in case the prime minister sends in his resignation. Isagoulyan promises to meet with President Serzh Sargsyan, as he thinks that he is not properly informed of the situation.

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.