ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ENDORSES BILL ON CHANGES IN CONSTITUTION
ITAR-TASS, Russia
Sept 1 2005
YEREVAN, September 1 (Itar-Tass) – Armenian parliament has endorsed
a bill on changes in the Constitution that will be put up for voting
on a national referendum.
The constitutional amendments have been necessitated by the obligations
that Yerevan took while joining the Council of Europe and their
objective is to balance off the powers delegated to various branches
of state power.
The bill on constitutional changes received the approval of a number
of European institutions, including the Council of Europe’s Venice
Commission.
Tigran Torossian, the deputy-speaker of Armenian parliament said
the draft envisions radical changes in the procedure of parliament’s
dissolution and forming of the cabinet of ministers.
It also lifts the ban on dual citizenship, something that members of
Armenian communities in many countries of the world have long been
waiting for.
“We ourselves need these constitutional changes in the first place,”
President Robert Kocharian said in a televised interview Wednesday.
In May 2003, the authorities put up a bill on constitutional changes
on a referendum held along with parliamentary election, but voters
did not support it then.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress