ArmInfo.The head of the Prosperous Armenia parliamentary faction Gagik Tsarukyan stated that the PAP was for holding a referendum on amendments to the Constitution. Tsarukyan stated this on February 11 in an interview with reporters.
The leader of the RA NA party and faction of the same name noted that the deputy from the faction, Mikael Melkumyan, advocated continuing discussions and, if necessary, spending a day in the building of the National Assembly, but finding a solution that would comply with legal norms. "We were waiting for a response from the ruling faction to our proposal, but it remained unanswered, as a result of which the PAP abstained from voting," the deputy stressed.
Tsarukyan noted that Prosperous Armenia intends to hold a meeting of the political council and discuss the current situation. "Now the position in our fraction is not unambiguous, someone is for holding a referendum, someone is against. If I express my point of view now, it will be my personal point of view, and not the whole fraction. Moreover, my the point of view can influence the decision of members of our political council and deputies who decide to accept my position. I will listen to all points of view and the majority position will be adopted, "the PAP head said.
Regarding whether it is likely that the Enlightened Armenia and Prosperous Armenia factions jointly apply to the Constitutional Court on this issue, the deputy said: "Since the Constitutional Court is an interested party, we decided to abstain."
The PAP head stated that he did not meet with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on this issue, and such a meeting is not planned in the foreseeable future.
It should be noted that on February 6, the Armenian parliament decided to submit draft amendments to the Constitution to the referendum. For this decision 88 deputies voted, against - 15, not a single deputy abstained. Many deputies and human rights activists said that this decision is unconstitutional, since initially the deputies had to send their proposal to the Constitutional Court. Recall that even before the vote, the Prosperous Armenia faction stated that it would not take part in the vote. Nevertheless, RA President Armen Sargsyan signed a decree on holding a referendum on April 5.