"Armenia" faction challenged legislative package on enlargement of  communities in Constitutional Court and accused President of inaction

ArmInfo.The "Armenia" faction, as stated, challenged the legislative package on the  enlargement of communities in the Constitutional Court.

"It is noteworthy that the President of the republic, Armen  Sarkissian, who constantly complains about his powers, having a  constitutional duty to monitor the observance of the Constitution, in  conditions when the legislative package contradicted at least the  requirements of the recently adopted decision by the Constitutional  Court, violating the right of 441 communities to be heard, did not  apply to the Constitutional Court, he simply limited himself to  meetings with some representatives of the authorities.

Taking into account the relevance of the issue, the "Armenia" faction  also submitted a petition to the Constitutional Court for the  immediate suspension of this legislative package. The appeal was  registered with the Constitutional Court yesterday," the statement of  "Armenia" says.  

To recall, on September 8, the government approved a package of  amendments to the law "On the administrative-territorial division of  the Republic of Armenia" and "On local self-government", according to  which, as a result of the unification of 441 communities in Armenia,  there will be 37 communities. The remaining 404 communities will have  the status of a settlement, where instead of the head of the  community, there will be an administrative representative, and the  head and the Council of Elders of the enlarged community will manage  the budget. After the completion of the entire process, there will be  77 enlarged communities in Armenia, not counting Yerevan.  The  process started in 2016, then, as a result of the unification of 486  communities, 54 enlarged communities were created. At this stage,  among the enlarging communities there are those that have already  been enlarged in the past, this time new communities will be added to  them.  The bill was passed by parliament on 24 September. Now,  according to the document, in all 37 newly formed communities, even  if the term of office of the head of the community has not expired,  elections to the Council of Elders on party lists will be held in the  near future. 

The candidate for the party with the highest number of votes will  lead the community. We also add that on September 8, at a government  meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that there is a decision  of the Constitutional Court that holding a local referendum on this  issue is unconstitutional and consolidation as a political process  will be decided only in the area of the National Assembly - the  government.  The political decision has already been made, the prime  minister said.