Friday, February 21 2020 12:20

ArmInfo.. From the first day, the activities of the new government of Armenia are aimed at establishing constitutional reality in Armenia. The Prime Minister of Armenia  Nikol Pashinyan stated this in an interview with the Public  Television Channel of Armenia."It should be noted that for many years  my political team and myself, while still in the opposition, talked  about constitutional reality, and I noted that the establishment of  constitutional reality in Armenia is of primary importance. 

Speaking of constitutional reality, I mean that in our Constitution a  number of provisions were fixed in the country, while in reality,  everything was exactly the opposite. Our government from the first  day of its work, was aimed at establishing constitutional reality in  Armenia, and in our country There are already concrete achievements  on this issue, in particular, the problem was that the Basic Law  stipulated that power belongs to the people, and the people form  their power through free elections, but such a process has not  occurred since 1991, with the exception of the parliamentary  elections of 1999, and we today, have formed this constitutional  reality. Today, every citizen of Armenia knows that he can create  power, both at the level of local self-government and at the state  level, "- emphasized the prime minister.  Pashinyan also touched on  the connection of constitutional reality with the Constitutional  Court. 

In particular, he noted that the Constitution, which entered into  force on April 9, 2018, described the model of the Constitutional  Court, which was highly praised by various international structures.  They noted that this model of the Constitutional Court is balanced,  and it has certain and concrete guarantees of independence.  

Also, given the fact that distrust has developed over the institute  of Constitutional Court in Armenia over many years, this model is the  way that will help restore confidence in the Constitutional Court.  What is the difference between the previous and current models? It  is, in particular, that in the previous model candidates for the  position of members of the Constitutional Court were nominated by the  President of Armenia or the chairman of the National Assembly and he  was elected by the parliament. According to the new model, three  candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court are nominated by  the president, government and the General Assembly of Judges. It  should also be noted that the two institutes that nominate candidates  for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court are  non-partisan, in particular, the president and the General Meeting of  Judges. According to the new regulations, the danger of the  politicization and partisanship of the Constitutional Court is  substantially neutralized. "The Prime Minister said that the second  feature is that the term of the judge is limited. "If previously  members of the Constitutional Court were elected for life, now it's  clearly stated that his term of office is 12 years, and the same  person cannot be members of the Constitutional Court more than once.  The second feature is that the head of the Constitutional Court is  not elected by the National The meetings, unlike the previous  version, and the members of the Constitutional Court elect their  chair for a term of 6 years, only once. This is important, since in  this way the head of the Constitutional Council will be deprived of  the opportunity to approve hegemony in the Constitutional Court, "the  prime minister emphasized. According to him, it is very important to  implement amendments to the Constitution. "We have introduced a  completely new system of government, which is a mechanism - a single  whole, and all the details of this mechanism should correspond to the  parameters described in our Constitution,"- said Pashinyan.  To the  remark that since the authorities, one way or another, were going to  implement the Constitutional amendments, so why they have now  accelerated this process, the Prime Minister noted: "Constitutional  amendments will be very complex, profound changes. When we talk about  constitutional amendments, we are talking about the reform of the  current Constitution, and it is impossible to develop the current  Constitution if the current Constitution has not de facto entered  into force. We want to bring the current Constitution into force in  order to obtain a constitutional flax. "

He emphasized that if nothing changes in the Constitution, then we  will miss the election of the head of the Constitutional Court twice.

The Prime Minister did not agree with the allegations that the chosen  path was not legal, recalling that the National Assembly could make  constitutional changes. "Since they need to be sent to the  Constitutional Court, which is now undergoing a crisis, and the judge  cannot participate in the consideration of the case concerning him,  and the Constitution states that if the National Assembly does not  accept a package of constitutional amendments, then a 3/5 vote can be  put to a referendum, therefore, there is no legal problem.  That is,  there are no problems in the legal aspect, "Pashinyan summed up the  line.  It should be noted that at an extraordinary sitting of the  National Assembly of Armenia on February 6, the deputies voted "for"  the issue of the need to adopt amendments to the Constitution,  providing for the termination of the powers of the chairman and  members of the Constitutional Court for a referendum. We are talking  about article 213 of the Constitution governing the tenure of members  and the chairman of the Constitutional Court. The adoption of the  amendments will allow the resignation of the current composition of  the Constitutional Court.