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The draft new Constitution of Armenia approved on August 20 by the Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President meets 90-95% of our expectations, the secretary of ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Party’s (ARFD) parliamentary faction Aghvan Vardanyan said at a press conference today.

In his words, the approved draft contains many of the essential, priority proposals of ARFD, and about 20 more proposals will be submitted by ARFD in the near future.

Vardanyan said ARFD Party has always been in favor of a switch to a parliamentary model of government, a 100% proportional election system, and the creation of a system in which the opposition will have real levers of exerting influence on the authorities.
“All the three principles are reflected in the submitted draft,” A. Vardanyan said adding: “With this Constitution, the country will be moving in the direction that we imagine”.

The parliamentary deputy indicated the importance of substantive discussions at the current stage. “The document is in line with our demands and we will do our best so that during a referendum the people will say yes to the new Constitution and the movement of our country in a completely new direction. That direction will resolve most of the existing problems in Armenia or create a basis for their solution”, Aghvan Vardanyan noted.

As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan submitted on August 21 the draft amendments in the Constitution of Armenia to the National Assembly. The draft amendments had been developed by the Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President. Vardan Poghosyan, a member of the Commission, has been appointed as official representative of Armenian President for presentation of the draft amendments to the Constitution in the National Assembly of Armenia. This week Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan plans to begin consultations with representatives of political parties regarding the approaches stated in the draft Constitution. The head of state also instructed the Commission on Constitutional Reforms under Armenian President to continue the dialog with the Venice Commission (VC) over those issues indicated in the VC’s preliminary opinion, around which no agreed solutions have been found so far.