YEREVAN. – President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has tasked Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan with carrying out organizational activities for the constitutional referendum, reported Zhamanak daily.

“According to our information, he [i.e. Sargsyan] also attempted to make him [i.e. Abrahamyan] an interested party by announcing that if the draft Constitution is adopted, Abrahamyan will be the future PM.

“But we learned that Sargsyan also stated that if the draft constitutional amendments do not pass, his hands will be free and, after the 2018 presidential election, he will assume the post of the PM, thereby, in fact, he has made not solely Abrahamyan but the entire RPA [i.e. the ruling Republican Party of Armenia] elite face a dilemma,” wrote Zhamanak.

Chapters 1 through 7 of the new draft Constitution of Armenia were made public on July 15. Accordingly, the country will make a transition from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance.