The focus of the press was on the published chapter of the new Constitution. Thus, Haykakan Zhamanak writes: "Serzh Sargsyan is trying to move to a parliamentary system of government to strengthen the role of the ruling party. After 2018 he intends to remain chairman of the Republican Party and keep a controlling stake of the decision-making power. Without going into detail, I just want to say that Serzh Sargsyan started his political career in the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Now he has created a system of government like in the Soviet Union,’’ the newspaper notes.
Zhamanak writes: "Before the upcoming election the authorities managed to do the most important thing: to marginalize all the important economic, legal, social, foreign policy and security-related issues which Armenia has. They created specific tangible challenges and threats, and continue to strengthen the situation, as they have been unresolved. The government obviously has no resources to solve these issues, and the main decision was the fact that they managed to marginalize these issues and push them into the background.
Zhoghovurd adds: "Thus, we can say that the new draft constitution from the beginning to the end was written with one goal: to prolong the power of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia. In fact, it is made so that a change of power can be possible in one way only – the way of revolution.
Zhamanak writes: "The Minister of Defense, Seyran Ohanyan, assessing the problem of mechanisms of the army and the Supreme Commander in the draft constitutional reform, said that the army noted its approaches to the issue, and now they are in the discussion process.
... So, in fact, one of the main intrigues of the constitutional reforms is the army. On the other hand, many participants in the power system will try to help the decentralization of management in order to reduce the role of the army, as well neutralize it as a pole inside the government.
Zhoghovurd: "According to official information, there weren’t enough taxes and duties to the state budget of Armenia during the first half of this year in comparison to the plan of 2015 (22 billion 87 million drams). Moreover, there were two main types of taxes in the first half of the year: VAT and income taxes. The taxes were lower than last year.
