Wednesday, August 28 2013

The authorities of Armenia have started discussions of the possibility of the Constitution changing. It is not ruled out that as a result of these discussions, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia will offer transition to the parliamentary system of government, chairman of the parliamentary commission for state and legal issues, a member of the RPA executive body, David Harutyunyan, told Radio Liberty.

"We have been discussing the issue for a long period of time", - Harutyunyan said and added that not all the points of the Constitution adopted in 2005 are satisfactory today.

"We have to watch the problem from a different perspective: which of the systems is more effective for Armenia in the created geo-political and domestic political situation", - he said. 

He also added that a specific option has not yet been discussed in the RPA. "We shall start the discussion when suggestions are voiced. I don't rule out the discussion of the above mentioned option, as well as any other option", - Harutyunyan said. He thinks that the discussions will last for several months till formation of a certain conception which will "appear by the end of the current year". He did not rule out that in case of transition to the parliamentary system of government, the RPA proportional list may be headed by the incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan during the next parliamentary election, and if the RPA wins, Sargsyan may be elected the prime minister. 

To recall, the opposition forces said about the necessity of transition to the parliamentary system of government many times. At the end of 2012, an "alternative" Prosperous Armenia Party initiated the discussion of this issue together with the parliamentary opposition, but the parties did not manage to reach consensus.