Touching upon the draft constitutional amendments during a conversation with reporters today, Chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Vladimir Vardanyan stated that applying to the Constitutional Court to make amendments to the Constitution is not an imperative.

When asked what will happen if the deputies of the National Assembly apply to the Constitutional Court with regard to the referendum, Vladimir Vardanyan said the following: “If 1/5 of the deputies of the National Assembly address the Constitutional Court to challenge the decision of the National Assembly or the decree of the President, the Constitutional Court will be the entity that will decide to suspend this procedure or not.”

Nevertheless, the chair of the Committee admitted that if 1/5 of the deputies do apply to the Constitutional Court, the latter has to address the matter.

As reported earlier, the President of Armenia has signed a decree to set the date of the referendum for constitutional amendments on April 5, 2020. The amendments envisage termination of the powers of the members of the Constitutional Court who were elected prior to April 2018. Out of the 9 members of the Court, 7 were elected prior to April 2018.