Pashinyan: New constitution key to restoring public trust in legal order

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday explained his administration’s push for adopting a new constitution, saying that the public does not perceive the current constitution as having been adopted by them and continues to question the legitimacy of previous referendums.

He highlighted the importance of establishing an “organic link” between the citizen and the legal order.

“Why is the adoption of a new Constitution important for us? Because in the relationship between the state and the citizen in our country, there is a certain persistent tension,” he said in a video address presenting the ruling Civil Contract party’s election program.

“One of the reasons for this tension is that citizens of the Republic of Armenia do not perceive the legal order established in the country as something established by themselves. Not only is there no such perception, but this is also a reality, because in Armenia the results of all constitutional referendums have always been called into question.

I have personally covered constitutional referendums in the past as a journalist, and we have witnessed all of them during various political processes. The persistent perception that the results of constitutional referendums are falsified creates tension and a disconnect between the citizen and the legal order. For us, it is extremely important to establish an organic link between the citizen and the legal order, and that organic link is formed through the adoption of the Constitution by referendum,” Pashinyan said.

The most recent constitutional referendum for amendments in Armenia took place in 2015 during the tenure of President Serzh Sargsyan, who was ousted by Pashinyan-led demonstrations in 2018.