ArmInfo.Constitutional referendum - This is nothing more than a continuation of the "velvet revolution" in Armenia. Such an opinion was expressed to ArmInfo, by an independent deputy of the Armenian parliament Arman Babajanyan.
"There is a strong link between the change of power in May 2018 and the referendum scheduled for April 5 to reform the Constitution. Both the first and second are links of radical transformations, raising the level of democracy in Armenia. In other words, the expected referendum is aimed at establishing and developing our country of democracy, "he stressed.
Otherwise, according to Babajanyan, no other purpose could justify the use of such an instrument, which is a referendum. The parliamentarian does not doubt that there is a direct link between the termination of powers of members of the Constitutional Court and the protection of democracy in Armenia. Saying "Yes" at the referendum, the Armenian society, according to his estimates, will say it not only and not so much to the departure of the composition of the Constitutional Court, but to the continuation of the in-depth reforms in the country. The latter, in his opinion, is a direct guarantee of the protection of democracy in Armenia. On February 10, Armenian President Armen Sargsyan signed a decree on holding a referendum on constitutional amendments on April 5. Earlier, 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.
At the same time, the parliamentarian is convinced of the need to provide a political and legal assessment of the activities and participation of the Constitutional Court in acts of violence over the suffrage of the people over the past two decades. Without this assessment, Babajanyan does not represent an institutional overcoming of the constitutional crisis. Moreover, the absence of this assessment makes the whole process around the COP meaningless.
"Accordingly, I consider giving a political and legal assessment by parliament to be a constitutional referendum a necessary step. Without this assessment, the process will not be complete and, by and large, will bring neither democracy nor the constitutionality of our country. In this sense, the referendum ceases to be the sole task of the authorities as many oppositionists are trying to imagine, a referendum is the task of the state, because its outcome will solve the most important problems of the state and society, not the government. m the level of trust and authority, only one of the expected outcomes of the referendum ", - summed up the MP.