YEREVAN. – Even if the Constitution were not amended, the President of the country would be from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). 

National Assembly (NA) President Galust Sahakyan, who is also RPA Vice-Chairman, on Monday told the aforementioned to reporters in the NA.

Sahakyan stated this while reflecting on the claims that President—and RPA Chairman—Serzh Sargsyan wishes to make amendments to the Constitution so that the First and the Second Presidents of Armenia would be unable to be reelected to this office.

“A single-center leadership is convenient for a political party,” the parliament speaker said. “[But] we need to get away from it and go with state-thinking. So, if this refers to the Republicans, the RPA is in favorable conditions in any positions.”

And to the journalists’ remark that if the Constitutiuon is not amended, Sargsyan would not become President for a third time, Galust Sahakyan responded: “It would be another Republican.”

The referendum on Armenia’s draft constitutional amendments is slated for December 6.

Pursuant to the new draft Constitution, the country will make a transition from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance.

The opponents of the proposed constitutional amendments, however, consider them to be primarily the authorities’ attempt to hang on to power.