Referendum on constitutional reform starts in Armenia

Today, Armenia is holding a referendum on amendments to the constitution, which provide for a transition from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government. 1997 stations have been set up in Yerevan and in all regions of 41 electoral districts. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, more than 2.5 million citizens of the country will be able to take part in the voting, which started at 07:00 (MSK) and will last until 19:00.

Employees of the diplomatic missions of the republic abroad and their families had the opportunity to vote early – they were able to do this on the internet from November 27 to December 1. Unlike diplomats and their families, Armenian citizens permanently residing abroad cannot participate in elections and referendums by law. As the Armenian CEC explained, this is caused by the fact that not all citizens of the republic are on the consular register in the diplomatic missions of Armenia, located in one country or another.

It is expected that the referendum in Armenia will be observed by 18 local and six international organizations, particularly the monitoring mission of the CIS, the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, representatives of the CEC and foreign accredited diplomatic missions in the country. The delegation of the Central Election Commission of Russia will be headed by the chairman of the commission, Vladimir Churov. In order to organize and conduct the referendum, the Armenian government has allocated 3.4 million dollars to the Central Electoral Commission of the republic. The campaign staff in favor of the constitutional reforms is headed by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan.

The amendments to the constitution were initiated by the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. The draft amendments to the Constitution entail the President of Armenia being elected for a term of seven years, instead of the current five, by the legislators, not by national vote. The highest executive body is the government, which develops and implements the internal and foreign policies on the basis of its program. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. The candidacy of the prime minister is put forward by the parliamentary majority.

In case of war, the prime minister becomes the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, which obey the government. The Armenian parliament is elected for five years, just as it is now, but under a proportional system, the first-past-the-post electoral system is abolished. Parliament should consist of at least 101 deputies, instead of the current 131. If there is no stable majority in the parliament after elections, a second stage of voting is appointed, which involves the two parties that have received the maximum percentage of votes. The candidacy of one of the deputy speakers of parliament will be nominated by the opposition factions. Seats in parliament will be given to representatives of national minorities.

Meanwhile, from December 1st, Yerevan has experienced constant protests organized by "the opposition front for national salvation 'New Armenia'," with the requirement to revoke the decision to hold a referendum and instead hold early parliamentary and presidential elections. An MP from the ANC, Aram Manukyan, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the state of the protest movement in Armenia on the threshold of the referendum. According to the deputy, the last few months before the referendum were used to explain to people the true reasons for the constitutional reform of Serzh Sargsyan. "For 25 days I went to all the villages, cities, I had more than 80 meetings in the course of these 25 days, a minimum of 20 to 120 people participated in them. During these 25 days, I traveled from the south of the country to the north, and met not only with our activists, but also with ordinary people – at fairs, in shops, in the squares – wherever it was possible. I'll tell you, even if no one read the draft, does not have information about what is at stake, they clearly know that this is just a desire of Serzh Sargsyan to continue his rule. They understand it clearly," he said.

In his turn, an MP from the ANC, Levon Zurabyan, pointed out that in recent months the opposition achieved its main goal in the referendum, because, in fact, the vote has turned into a "vote of no confidence in Serzh Sargsyan's regime." "Most of the people have perfectly understood that actually, an opportunity for Serzh Sargsyan to circumvent the constitutional ban on a third term is being created under the guise of a transition to a parliamentary model of constitutional government. And such a system is created, in which, first of all, the acquisition of an absolute majority in the parliament is constitutionally guaranteed for the ruling party, and now, as the Secretary General, Serzh Sargsyan will continue to be the de facto leader of the country. This is the whole plan. And our campaign has been quite successful, everyone already realized it, 90% of people are willing to say "no". And in general, the situation is getting out of the control of the authorities," the deputy stated.