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Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Tigran Mukuchyan joined debates on legislative amendments in the parliament on Friday.

According to him, the laws that the CEC enforces have certain problems, and he raised them during the parliamentary debates.

“The scope of the discussion was very broad. It included various legislative acts. As for the referendum, will fully inform the public when its date is set and CEC procedures start,” Mukuchyan said, referring to the referendum on constitutional changes proposed by the My Step bloc, which would replace the Constitutional Court chairman and its seven members.

According to him, the timeframes stipulated in the law “On Referendum” are longer than the those for snap elections.

Mukuchyan also said he cannot make any observations on the wording the ballot paper for the referendum.

“A referendum is set up, after which separate organizational processes are launched, with a campaign carried out in parallel to them. During this course the issue put to a referendum is clarified. Only after those processes a sample of the ballot paper is created and printed in a manner prescribed by law,” Mukuchyan said.

At the moment, the CEC has not started any processes related to the referendum on the constitutional amendments.

Asked if there is any legal provision preventing the CEC from holding a constitutional referendum, Mukuchyan the parliamentary debates focused on a broader circle of issues.

“I came to discuss a wider range of issues. The scope of our applicable legislation is much wider than the referendum law alone. There are considerations, and accordingly the CEC will formulate its legal position,” he said.

The CEC head could not unveil specific timeframes for the conduct of the referendum. He only said that according to the law a referendum is to be organized within 50-65 days. “It’s for the president of the republic to set the referendum date. It’s outside the CEC function,” he said.

Asked whether he is facing any difficulties while working with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan given the fact that the latter repeatedly criticized him as a lawmaker, Mukuchyan said that the CEC is an independent commission, the status of which is defined by the Constitution and the Electoral Code.

“There is an electoral code in accordance of which we organize the electoral processes. Whatever those regulations are, the electoral processes are organized accordingly. We have always worked based on legal requirements,” he said.