The Armenian National Congress (ANC) comes out against the draft of constitutional reforms in Armenia and calls on the political forces and the public to join efforts to remove it from the agenda and focus on the idea of overthrow of President Serzh Sargsyan, ANC says in a statement.
The ANC also points out that the draft of the constitutional reforms is aimed at strengthening the ruling regime rather than the statehood. "It will be possible to conduct constitutional reforms after free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections only", the ANC says. It also stresses that the current problems in the country - social polarization, centralization of wealth in the high-ranking officials' hands, large-scale migration, etc. - are the result of the corrupt system of the ruling regime.
The ANC believes that the draft of the constitutional reforms has been published because Serzh Sargsyan wants to divert the attention of the public and the political forces from the current political crisis.
On Thursday the Presidential Committee on Constitutional Reforms made public a draft concept of the reforms. Its key feature is the idea to switch to parliamentary regime.
The document stipulates larger control powers for the Parliament, particularly, its right to elect the President for seven years.
The authors of the reforms give the Prime Minister large authority. The Cabinet he forms is subordinate to the Parliament (wherein the majority belongs to the Premier).
The document consists of 45 pages and concerns state administration, constitutional law, electoral legislation and human rights and freedoms.