Heritage opposition party declines to discuss draft Constitution of Armenia with president
‘Heritage’ opposition party has declined to meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan as part of consultations with political forces over the constitutional reform. Heritage took that decision during the sitting of the party council today.
“Since our last meeting our proposals, in fact, have not been accepted in terms of contents” the deputy chairman of Heritage party Armen Martirosyan told Panorama.am, adding that some provisions that their party considers unacceptable have been included in the draft new Constitution of Armenia.
According to Martirosyan, the leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian did not attend the sitting of the party council as he is now abroad, but he took part in the discussions through modern means of communication.
Armen Martirosyan stressed that although Heritage Party supports a transition to a parliamentary system of government and considers constitutional reforms necessary, it is firmly opposed to the submitted draft new Constitution of Armenia.
To remind, , 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 President Serzh Sargsyan is holding 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.