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The opposition Armenia faction in the Armenian parliament has announced that it will not support the government’s proposal to put the draft of a new Constitution to a referendum.
Armenia faction leader Anna Grigoryan said such a vote would run counter to the mandate the faction had received from voters and its pre-election pledges.
Speaking to reporters in parliament, Grigoryan commented on the government’s proposal to hold a constitutional referendum with the opposition’s support.
She said the issue of constitutional amendments was not new, noting that the ruling party and the opposition had gone into the elections with differing positions on the matter.
She said the requirement for broad parliamentary consensus to hold a referendum was intended to ensure agreement on the proposed agenda. However, no such consensus currently exists, as the political forces hold opposing positions, she said.
Asked about possible public pressure on the opposition, the faction leader said it would not change their decision.
“People did not vote for us so that we would vote in favor of putting this draft to a referendum. Even if Nikol Pashinyan gathers his entire faction, his entire political team and the people, and tries to supposedly exert pressure, that still cannot influence our position, because our mandate does not allow for that,” she said.
Responding to questions about possible guarantees surrounding the signing of a peace agreement, Grigoryan said adopting a new Constitution would not rule out further demands from Azerbaijan.
She added that possible assurances regarding the signing of a peace agreement with Azerbaijan could not serve as grounds for changing her faction’s position either.
Grigoryan linked the government’s current agenda for adopting a new Constitution to Azerbaijan’s demands, criticizing in this context the approach of removing the reference to Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.
At the same time, she did not rule out discussing a different agenda for constitutional amendments. She said that if the preamble remained unchanged and discussions instead focused, for example, on changing what she described as the “super-prime-ministerial system” or reforming the judiciary, her faction could consider such proposals.
Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan, a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, has called on the opposition factions to allow the draft of the new Constitution to be put to a referendum while retaining their right to campaign against it, leaving the final decision to the people.
The ruling Civil Contract faction does not have enough seats in parliament to initiate a referendum on its own and needs at least six votes from the opposition. Both opposition factions in parliament have said they will not support holding a referendum on the proposed new Constitution.