«KOCHARYAN HAS PLENARY POWERS»

A1plus
| 13:52:44 | 19-04-2005 | Politics |

Chairman of Democracy public organization Vardan Poghosyan is convinced
that to date the acting Constitution provides for plenary powers of
the President.

In his words, our Constitution not only needs changes but is far
from the constitutional models of democratic states. Today during the
discussion of a draft of constitutional amendments Vardan Poghosyan
touched upon concrete changes, which have been already submitted to the
National Assembly factions. In Poghosyan’s opinion, first of all the
present semi-presidential system should be replaced. “For instance, the
President should not be empowered to dissolve the government. Presently
the President can dismiss the Prime Minister without taking into
account the opinion of the NA. In case the NA does not agree with
his decision he can dissolve it as well”, Vardan Poghosyan says.

According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, who was also present at the
discussions, if the NA majority did not impede the works being carried
out, the constitutional changes would become real. “The President’s
authority is too wide; he even has the right to appoint the Mayor of
Yerevan. If we want to become a democratic state we should have an
appropriate Constitution”, he said.

–Boundary_(ID_iNbwsEIT6JF36Zzy2z0efQ)–