YEREVAN. – Members of the “Dem.Am [I am against]” civic initiative, which opposes the mandatory component of the new pension law in Armenia, are demanding from President Serzh Sargsyan to ensure adherence to the Constitution, the initiative’s website reported.

“You, having assumed the office of the President of Armenia, have sworn that you will unconditionally fulfill the requirements of the Constitution.

“But as we witness, and as you also said in your remarks, 80 percent of the people [of Armenia] are against a law which the Constitutional Court of Armenia already has declared unconstitutional. The Government of Armenia [, however,] has expressed a position that it will deduct these [mandatory funded pension] amounts from the people; this is unacceptable for us, and we condemn such a move. 

“Based on the foregoing, I, as an Armenian citizen, appeal to you, the president of the country, to perform your duties specified by the Constitution, [and] to ensure the immediate implementation—by the executive [branch of power]—of the requirements of the Constitution and the Constitutional Court decision,” specifically reads the “Dem.Am” members’ individual letters addressed to the President. 

On April 2, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia declared unconstitutional a whole series of articles in the new Law on Funded Pensions, which were contested with a lawsuit by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary factions.

Despite the CC ruling, however, the state-run financial institutions still oblige the employers to make mandatory funded pension cuts from the salaries of their employees. The respective reasoning is that the CC gave the parliament and the government until September 30 to amend the aforesaid law’s provisions that were deemed unconstitutional.