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The speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia will send the draft amendments to the Constitution to the Armenian president within 7 days, while the head of state will set a date for a referendum, Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on state and legal affairs Hovhannes Sahakyan told Panorama.am.

“Under the Law on the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, the speaker of NA shall send a draft passed by the parliament to the president of the country within 7 days. The president sets the date for a referendum – under the Law on Referendum and within his authority prescribed by the Constitution. Then preparations for a referendum campaign will start,” H. Sahakyan explained.

As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on August 21 sent the draft constitutional amendments to the National Assembly of Armenia. The draft was prepared by the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms adjunct to Armenian President. On September 11 the draft amendments received a positive opinion of the parliament’s standing committee on state and legal affairs, followed by the draft’s debates at the autumn session of NA. On October 5 the Armenian parliament adopted the draft decision of NA about its consent to put the document to a referendum. The parliament adopted the draft decision by a majority of the votes: 104 MPs voted in favor, 10 against, with 3 abstentions. The draft was backed by the factions of Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), opposition ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP). Opposition factions ‘Heritage’ and ‘Armenian National Congress’ (ANC), and 2 MPs of the opposition faction ‘Orinats Yerkir’ voted against.