YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. The leading Republican party of Armenia considers that the announcement on the draft Constitution by the political party - Armenian National Congress is a big progress. This opinion was expressed by the head of the division of the Press and Public Relations of the Republican Party of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov in his interview to the journalists after the executive body session.

Eduard Sharmazanov said:

“Naturally I am familiar with the position of that political party. This is political pluralism and we are not expecting everybody to be in favor of the Constitutional reforms. I must note that the Armenian National Congress has made a progress though I disagree with most of the theses presented by ANC.   Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the political party he led categorically rejected any discussions on the Constitutional reforms, and today the announcement, making references to the draft, giving legal assessments shows that ANC has entered a phase of substantive discussions.”

On July 15 the o Specialized Commission for Constitutional Reforms published the first 7 chapters of the draft Constitution for public debates. It is suggested by the draft version of the 1-7 chapters of the Constitution that the National Assembly should be formed from at least 101 MPs, the National Assembly should be elected by proportional representation which must guarantee the formation of stable parliamentary majority.  “Armenpress” reports that according to the draft version, if a stable majority is not formed, the second stage of elections is held in which the top two parties or party alliances participate.

At the same time it is defined that the parties or alliances participating in the NA elections have to introduce their candidate for the Prime Minister and fundamentals of the Government Program. NA will be elected for a 5-year term. The 5th article of the draft, which is about the President and his credentials, foresees that the President must be elected for a 7-year term. The same individual can be elected as a president only once in contrast to the current Constitution where the limitation refers to holding the office twice in row. At the same time it is foreseen that the president cannot be a member of any party during his presidency.