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In an interview with 2rd.am, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said when commenting on the constitutional reform in Armenia:

“My point of view hasn’t changed: there is no need for constitutional reforms, especially such radical ones. All the challenges and problems that the country is faced with are quite solvable within the current Constitution which functionality is not questioned by anyone. The published draft has exceeded my worst expectations. The document doesn’t already stipulate the choice between semi-presidential and parliamentary systems of governance: the draft Constitution contains considerable risks of shifting to a de-facto single- party system which will lead to political monopoly and stagnation.”

“The Soviet Constitution had a beautiful wording, but Article 6 on the ruling role of the CPSU legalized the communists’ political monopoly. Everyone knows what consequently became of the USSR. The draft Constitution is saturated with beautiful phrases on human rights and social goals of the state which, however, serve to disguise an absolutely unacceptable way of National Assembly formation emasculating the very gist of the parliamentary governance,” R. Kocharyan said.

As regards the hotly discussed Article 89, the former president said:

“The draft’s Article 89 is called for ensuring dominance in the parliament and accordingly, in the power, a single party, as well. In our realities, this will be the party possessing the administrative and financial resources irrespective of its popularity.

Taking into account the absolute lack of even an implication of inner-party democracy in Armenia, the patronage governance will become a source of evil for many years to come, a source of stagnation and tool for the reproduction of the vicious system. In fact, the proposed draft turns the political monopoly into a constitutional norm.

I don’t wish such a future for my country, which is why I am definitely against the reforms. A big mistake is made which may entail extremely dangerous ramifications for the future of Armenia”, Robert Kocharyan said.