Adoption of new Constitution forced from outside - expert  

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.