ArmInfo. Armenia's authorities could hold early parliamentary elections in the country referring to the country's new Constitution, political strategist Vigen Hakobyan told ArmInfo.
Recently in Armenia there has been more frequent talk about the possibility of holding early elections in the country. Despite the fact that the authorities themselves deny such a development of events, nevertheless, the expert community does not exclude this possibility, especially against the background of the project announced by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan for the development and adoption of a new Constitution of the country.
True, as the political strategist noted, it is necessary to keep in mind that adopting the Constitution will require months of work. "Moreover, if I understand correctly, in this case we are not talking about changing the management system," Hakobyan emphasized, without ruling out that the issue of adopting a new Basic Law of the country could have been imposed on the republic from the outside in order to solve problems related to a number of provisions relating to Nagorno-Karabakh and the requirements recorded in the Declaration of Independence. "I don't see a direct connection here, unless we are really talking about an external order, which is associated with a reorientation of foreign policy and ideology," the expert said.
He emphasized that the country's authorities themselves should be interested in holding early parliamentary elections. "First of all, we are talking about a vote of confidence in them. The authorities are well aware that, according to closed and open sociological surveys, the rating of the current prime minister is steadily declining. If five years ago it was 70%, now, according to the results of various opinion polls conducted in recent months, it fluctuates between 15-19%. The authorities are also concerned about the results of the elections to the Council of Elders of Yerevan, which were held with an unprecedentedly low voter turnout of approximately 30%. With such a low turnout, even a 20% government rating can provide more than 40% of the votes of citizens who took part in the elections. This figure may exceed 50% if administrative resources are used," said the political strategist, adding that despite the decline in Pashinyan's rating, the level of citizens' trust in his political opponents fluctuates around 36%. Hakobyan emphasized that Pashinyan knows this very well, understanding that early elections will allow him to be re-elected and restore his legitimacy, undermined after the actual surrender of Artsakh.
According to Hakobyan, the second reason for holding early elections is the desire of the authorities to reformat the opposition. "Pashinyan believes that since the opposition has a low rating, he will be able to bring new opposition forces in the person of pro-Western political figures into parliament. And finally, the third reason for going to early parliamentary elections is an external factor. For the West, it is very important that Pashinyan, who is trying to reorient the country's external vector towards the West had enough legitimacy to carry out these actions, that is, it could speak openly to the people, get their votes and act freely in the sphere of foreign policy, legitimize all its steps - be it signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan or changing foreign policy vector," Hakobyan said.
The issue of the new Constitution, which was announced by the head of the Armenian government Nikol Pashinyan during a recent visit to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, was also addressed by the deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia from the opposition faction "Armenia" Kristine Vardanyan. On her Facebook page, she noted that a number of provisions of the country's current Basic Law are problematic both for Turkey and Azerbaijan, and for Nikol Pashinyan himself. In particular, the preamble of the RA Constitution contains a reference to the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the right to reunification of the NKR and the RA. The 11th paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which states that the Republic of Armenia supports international recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey, is also considered problematic. In addition, as Vardanyan noted, the authorities do not like Article 18 of the Basic Law of the country, in which the Republic of Armenia recognizes "the unique mission of the Armenian Apostolic Church as a national church in the spiritual life of the Armenian people, in the development of their national culture and the preservation of their national identity." No less problematic for the authorities is Article 21 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, which talks about the symbols of the Republic of Armenia.