make preferableYEREVAN. – The rule of President Serzh Sargsyan has considerably weakened after the referendum on constitutional amendments in Armenia.
Head of the opposition Armenian National Congress National Assembly Faction, Levon Zurabyan, stated the above-said at a press conference on Monday.
In the MP’s words, prior to this plebiscite, Sargsyan had faced a choice: Either losing his power or maintaining it by transitioning to parliamentary governance, but with a weakened power.
“If Serzh Sargsyan had the opportunity to maintain the presidential governance and his personal power in this [i.e. semi-presidential] system, he would have never resorted to the referendum,” Zurabyan noted. “He took the road of maintaining his power with a weakened version.”
Levon Zurabyan added, however, that the incumbent President of Armenia has created a tough situation for himself, in the context of the development of the Electoral Code of the country.
The referendum on Armenia’s constitutional amendments was conducted on December 6 of the year past.
As a result, a total of 63.37 percent of the voters said “yes” to these amendments, whereas 32.36 percent voted “no” in this plebiscite.
Pursuant to the new amendments, the country will make a transition from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance, and conduct completely proportional parliamentary elections.
