ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Mediamax news agency
1 Sep 05
Yerevan, 1 September: The Armenian National Assembly passed the draft
constitutional reform in its second reading today. The draft law will
be put up for a nationwide referendum in November this year.
A total of 97 MPs voted for the draft with no-one opposing it and
one MP abstaining, Mediamax has said.
The opposition factions, the Justice bloc and the National Unity Party,
left the assembly hall of the parliament yesterday and did not take
part in today’s voting.
The draft constitutional amendments were prepared by the ruling
coalition and agreed with the Council of Europe Venice Commission.
The main purpose of the reforms is to ensure the equality of all
branches of power.
The constitutional reforms were one of the key points of Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan’s election programme and one of Armenia’s
basic commitments to the Council of Europe.
The Armenian president’s representative on the constitutional
amendments, Armen Arutyunyan, said today that the role of the
parliament will increase in the country if the constitutional reforms
are adopted in the referendum. Specifically, the National Assembly
will play the main role in forming the parliament and appointing
the prosecutor-general, and the president will be able to personally
adopt a decision to dismiss the prime minister.