Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said the following during today’s rally at Republic Square in Yerevan.
“We need to admit once and for all that the Constitution that was adopted in 2015 and entered into force in 2018 proved to have many flaws. I think it’s time to state that we need to work on adopting a new Constitution or constitutional amendments through a nationwide referendum in October, and making the transition to a semi-presidential system of governance needs to be one of the options. This process needs to be carried out through close cooperation with the legislature, government, the President, political forces and civil society. In the course of the next year, we need to modify the articles of the Constitution that can be modified through voting in parliament. The major objective is to create constitutional mechanisms that will guarantee stability and security in Armenia and will exclude the creation of crises,” Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan also touched upon snap elections and said the following: “I had offered to hold snap parliamentary elections. This was addressed to parliamentary forces, but they declined the offer. Later, I said if the parliamentary forces and the opposition decline the offer, there is no sense in holding snap elections. Now the leader of one of the parliamentary forces says his political party had made the offer a long time ago so that elections wouldn’t be held, meaning this was a formal offer. I officially announce that if the parliamentary forces accept the offer I had made in December 2020, we will agree to go to snap parliamentary elections.”
Touching upon the issue of captives, Pashinyan said the following: “We need to solve many issues, and the major issues are the issues related to our captured brothers and missing servicemen, but I don’t find discussions on these issues too appropriate. Unfortunately, the fact is that the current situation has led to certain problems, but I wouldn’t like to go into details.”
