YEREVAN. – The new draft Constitution of Armenia is 90- to 95-percent consistent with our precepts and approaches.

Secretary of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party National Assembly (NA) Faction, Aghvan Vardanyan, stated the abovementioned at a press conference on Monday.

“We were proposing three principles: Making a transition to a parliamentary system of governance, making a transition to a 100-percent proportional voting system, [and] creating a system where the [political] opposition will have substantial leverage,” said Vardanyan. “These three main principles are reflected in the current text [of the draft Constitution], and [therefore] we can say that our [i.e. the ARF’s] views, approaches have won.”

The ARF MP added that it is time to start relevant substantive debates.

In his words, however, even though this draft satisfies the ARF, the party still has two dozen proposals which it will table in the NA.

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.