The referendum shouldn’t have been declared without the conclusion of the Constitutional Court. This is what member of the Constitutional Court Felix Tokhyan told reporters in front of the Court today, touching upon the National Assembly’s decision on constitutional amendments.

“Take a look at the Venice Commission’s opinion. The Venice Commission provided their opinion on voluntary and mandatory pension, and the Armenian authorities agreed that the judges of the Constitutional Court can only leave voluntarily and gave us two months to go on pension under good conditions. We refused, and after a few months, the authorities made the right decision and declared a referendum on April 5. At the time, the coronavirus situation was different. The referendum was possible,” Tokhyan said and urged reporters to study the opinion of the Venice Commission and not just be governed by the authorities’ interpretations of the Venice Commission’s statements.

“The opinion states that the authorities are doing the opposite of what the Venice Commission had said. They changed the Constitution in one day. This is not normal,” Tokhyan said.

When told that the authorities want to make sure the signature of the President of Armenia is not mandatory for the bill to enter into force, Tokhyan said that’s not the way it is supposed to be.