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The opposition Bright Armenia faction of the Armenian parliament will ask the Constitutional Court to assess the legality of the government-backed constitutional changes, but not at the moment, its leader Edmon Marukyan told a news conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

The ruling My Step faction adopted the draft amendments to the Constitution calling for the immediate replacement of the Constitutional Court head and three judges of the top court at a special session on Monday.

The opposition Prosperous Armenia faction immediately denounced the amendments as unconstitutional and unveiled a plan to challenge the legality of the amendments in the Constitutional Court.

Marukyan reiterated that the parliamentary majority passed the draft amendments in a violation of the Constitution, as it refused to send them to the Constitutional Court for approval before passing them in the second and final reading.

In addition, the MP says, the ruling force also violated the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly by depriving the president of the right to sign into law the draft amendments adopted by the parliament.

Another Bright Armenia lawmaker Taron Simonyan said, in turn, the Constitution allows 1/5 of the deputies to appeal to the Constitutional Court over those violations. According to him, there are several grounds for challenging the legality of the process in the highest court.

Marukyan added they will work on the appeal and will lodge it with the court as soon as it holds a hearing in the case of second President Robert Kocharyan scheduled for July 7 in an effort not to interfere in the process.

“On the very day when the parliament was debating the draft constitutional amendments, the Constitutional Court held a working session and decided to examine the case of the second president on July 7. In other words, a date was set for the examination of a suspended case,” Marukyan explained.