YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. 25 years ago the peoples of the Commonwealth of Independent States chose the path of building independent states and today we can document that we have achieved a lot of things despite numerous obstacles and this is to some extent thank to the mechanisms provided by the Commonwealth, “Armenpress” reports President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan announced in Bishkek at the narrow-format meeting of the heads of the CIS member states.

“Our states are in the phase of reinforcing their governance systems. For Armenia, this is the way to ensuring rule of law, improvement of the governance system, economic development, increasing the level of independence of the judicial system, strengthening the civil society and support for free media”, President Sargsyan stated.

In the words of the Armenian president, last year a Constitutional referendum, substituting the semi-presidential system of governance into a parliamentary one, was held in Armenia to achieve these goals.

“This week for the first time during the 25 years of our independence, a consensus was reached between the parliamentary majority and the opposition with the participation of the civil society over the amendments of the Electoral Code. More transparent mechanisms for the supervision of the electoral processes are applied, and the criminal responsibility for electoral frauds is further toughened”, the President said, expressing conviction that all these measures will increase the public trust towards electoral processes, bringing them to conformity with international standards.

“A few month later parliamentary elections will be held in our country. The Republic of Armenia will send invitations to all its partners, including to the CIS member states, to participate in the international monitoring mission”, Serzh Sargsyan said, adding that a new government is in the stage of formation in Armenia aiming to give a new impetus to the economy and expanding export volumes.