Armenia intended to apply to the Venice Commission in the period of referendum, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a news conference today.

“Our forecast is that at least for a year coronavirus will exist in our reality, which means that at least for a year we cannot have a referendum,” he said.

The head of the government stressed that they cannot rank the political interest higher than the public health interest.

“It is impossible to conduct referendum, on the other hand we cannot wait for the solution of the issue of the Constitutional Court until the end of the coronavirus epidemic. Even if we wait for so long we will soon set a commission on constitutional amendments and will conduct a referendum, according to initial calculations, in June 2021,” he said.

Nikol Pashinyan said that they have applied to the Venice Commission and discuss the issue to solve the issue fully or partially at the NA.

“It is obvious for me that we cannot conduct referendum by May 2021 but neither we can wait for so long, consequently, there is no problem for us and our international partners to regulate our work and get effective solutions via consensus,” the PM said.