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| 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