YEREVAN. - In case of the current semi-presidential form of governance, the opposition can forget about change of power which can take place not earlier than once in 5 years, Hrayr Tovmasyan, member of the Specialized Commission on Constitutional Reforms in Armenia, said at the parliamentary hearings today.

According to him, the proposed amendments to the Constitution give the opportunity to change the power actually every day and thus, the accusations that those amendments aim to maintain the current authorities are absolutely groundless.

“Just the other way round, if the current authorities wanted this, they couldn’t have thought of a better system than the current one. Many post-Soviet republics with semi-presidential system can serve as an example,” Tovmasyan said.

The opposition members who support the semi-presidential system, should think what they would do if there are no constitutional reforms, and they suddenly lose the parliamentary election in 2017, but win the presidential one in 2018.

“According to the current system, the parliament is formed by the government. Then what will the president do, once he cannot form the government?” Tovmasyan said.

However, in Tovmasyan’s words, the opportunity to change the power shouldn’t be confused with instability.  .