Parliament majority maneuvers to call referendum on high court changes

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The parliament majority, the My Step bloc, will not pass its own bill on replacing the high court judges at first reading in a technical maneuver to propose to call a referendum on the matter, lawmaker Vahagn Hovakimyan from the ruling party said in parliament.

“The My Step faction will not adopt this bill on first reading and by virtue of the powers vested in parliament under paragraph 3 of Article 202 of the Constitution it will recommend putting up for vote the decision on presenting this bill for referendum. This is the application of direct democracy, this is the conviction and belief of our political force. We have faith in our people, and we have to listen to our people,” he said.

The MP said that during this period of time the parliament and the Cabinet have done their best to resolve the crisis around the Constitutional Court.

He recalled the parliament’s earlier motion that was sent to the Constitutional Court requesting to terminate the powers of chief justice Hrayr Tovmasyan, which however was denied. He also recalled the voluntary early retirement plan for justices, which was approved by the Venice Commission.

Theparliamentary majority’s bill on making constitutional amendments seeks to enable replacing the Constitutional Court justices who were appointed under the previous constitution.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan