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The Constitutional Reform Council has not held any meeting yet, there will be a discussion, we will speak. The chairman of the Bright Armenia Party (BAP), Edmon Marukyan, stated this to reporters at Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan Friday—on the Army Day anniversary—, and referring to the fact that he is included in this council whose makeup was approved Thursday.

"You probably remember that we [i.e., the BAP] were very active during the 2015 constitutional amendments. At that time, we submitted our [respective] proposals to [then] President Serzh Sargsyan, [but] which were not accepted for the most part. This Constitution has been adopted which we have said is a 'super-prime minister' constitution with 'toothless' parliamentary powers, with deeply limited powers of the Armenian President, and we have said that there are many problems in connection with the judicial power, in connection with local self-government bodies," he said.

According to Marukyan, when the Constitutional Reform Council starts working, we must first give a "diagnosis" as to why we want to make constitutional reforms.

"There is an opinion that since the constitutional referendums have always been rigged [in Armenia], a new constitution should be adopted. Opinion two: The 'super-prime minister' system needs to be changed. Opinion three: We should shift to the semi-presidential [system of government]. In my opinion, we should have a complete parliamentary system [of government] because we [i.e., Armenia] do not have it today.

It is a big question whether or not the Constitution will be changed because you know that the barriers to a referendum are very high. I am confident that proposals will be prepared, or there will be a new draft of the Constitution because there is already a [Constitutional Reform] Council. And as to whether there will be a [constitutional] referendum, or there will be [constitutional] amendments at the parliamentary level in the section [of the Constitution] that is possible without a referendum, let's live, see it," the member of the Constitutional Reform Council added.

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