YEREVAN. – After the constitutional reform, the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party will propose that solely the National Assembly (NA) shall elect the President of Armenia.
Head of the ARF NA Faction, Armen Rustamyan, stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Monday.
“We were proposing that we should engage the [Armenian] diaspora, too, but if this is not accepted, the system of electors needs to be removed,” said Rustamyan. “The President shall be elected by the National Assembly; we will table this very proposal.”
As for the new draft Constitution’s provision of a two-phased parliamentary election system in Armenia, ARF NA Faction Secretary Aghvan Vardanyan informed that one of their respective recommendations was accepted and put on the draft.
“When the draft was publicized for the first time, there was no chance there to form a coalition [government] after the first phase,” noted Vardanyan. “[But] after our [i.e. the ARF’s] proposals, there already was a specification [of a second phase] in the [draft constitutional] text that was publicized for the second time.”
The new draft Constitution has been forwarded to the NA. The respective parliamentary debates are expected to get underway during its first four-day fall session. And as per National Assembly President Galust Sahakyan, the constitutional referendum should be conducted in late September.
