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Unique opportunity of political consensus created in Armenia

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  • Unique opportunity of political consensus created in Armenia

    A1plus

    | 11:11:17 | 02-07-2005 | Politics |

    UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY OF POLITICAL CONSENSUS CREATED IN ARMENIA

    Though various mechanisms of adoption of Constitution are applied in
    international practice, Armenia has chosen the variant of referendum.

    At that the barrier is very high: for the adoption of the Constitution more
    than half of the voters and no less than 1/3 of those who have suffrage
    should vote for the draft. There is also another demand stipulated by the
    CoE: the new Constitution should not have the fate of the previous draft.
    However there exists an opinion that even with strong desire the essential
    participation of the voters cannot be secured.

    I think people should vote. A unique opportunity of political consensus has
    been created in Armenia and I think people should take the occasion',
    deputy, member of Orinats Yerkir party, Mher Shahgeldyan says. The society
    would be more active of were informed of the changes in detail. `It was not
    easy to do it before, since we were working at the changes with the Venice
    Commission. Today, when the coalition political forces of Armenia, the
    opposition and the Venice Commission came to agreement on the principal
    clauses the draft can be presented to the society. People should know what
    document they are going to adopt', he says.

    NA deputy, Justice faction member Grigor Harutyunyan also supports the idea
    of adopting the Constitution via referendum. He also supports the strict
    demands. `Now specialists and political forces should explain to the society
    the fact of the matter', he says.

    It should be also taken into account that a whole package of reforms is
    submitted on referendum. They say that 80% or 90% of the proposals of the
    European structures were adopted. In states with parliamentary government
    system the changed would be presented by items. But our situation is
    different. `We have the parliament and the people vote for the whole
    document, since various items of the Constitution are interrelated - the
    government system, human rights, Ombudsman and the Justice Council, local
    self-government and development of democracy. It would be unadvisable to
    hold a referendum on each item in a country like Armenia.

    Lena Badeyan
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