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On September 4 the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs organized parliamentary hearings to debate the draft law on the RA Constitutional Amendments. The NA deputies, representatives of the RA Advocacy Chamber, the RA Judicial Department, extra-parliamentary political forces, the NGOs and the national minorities, the heads of the communities, the members of the Youth Parliament and others took part in the hearings.

Opening the work of the parliamentary hearings the Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Hovhannes Sahakyan has noted that the document of such importance is necessary to pass the stage of the public debates to understand not only the views of the political forces, but also the opinion of the NGOs, the national minorities and other organizations responsible for this sphere. He expressed hope that during the hearings the views of all concerned sides would be audible by the Specialized Commission on the Constitutional Amendments adjunct to the President of the Republic of Armenia and in case of being acceptable, they will be used.

The RA President’s Official Representative Vardan Poghosyan talked about the goal, process of the constitutional reforms, the cooperation with the international structures, particularly, the Venice Commission, as well as touched upon the key provisions of the constitutional reforms. According to the speaker, the RA Constitution adopted in 1995 was centralized on power with power system centralized on a person. The reforms of 2005, according to Vardan Poghosyan, as an important step on the way of the guarantee of the main rights and the development of parliamentarism, could not completely solve the transformation from power-centralized Constitution to man-centralized Constitution. It was noted that the main goal of the draft of the constitutional reforms presented by the RA President is to establish a stable democratic system in the country and guarantee the principle of the rule of law as the cornerstone of the legal state. While elaborating the draft law the Constitutional Commission comprehensively studied the world experience of the constitutional developments, an attempt was made to overcome the constitutional gaps and inaccuracies which exist in the functioning Constitution and the draft law on the constitutional amendments proposed for the first time was presented to the National Assembly with detailed substantiations.

The draft law was debated in the NA factions, numerous recommendations were submitted. Vardan Poghosyan has underlined that both the RA President and the Commission are ready to debate and accept any reasonable recommendation, taking into account that the Constitution is the document which will establish the Armenians’ united will.

At the elaboration phase of the draft law the recommendations made by the Venice Commission were also taken into consideration: the latter, highly assessing the work done, in the preliminary conclusion submitted on the constitutional reforms' draft law, highlighted the political and the legal culture in Armenia which was formed in connection with the constitutional reforms in the previous years with the Venice Commission after the works done.

Vardan Poghosyan touched upon the most important amendments proposed in the draft law. According to him, one of the key reforms of the draft law refers to the chapter on human and citizen’s basic rights and freedoms.

The reform of the system of government is also one of the key problems, hence, the Commission proposed to turn from the functioning semi-presidential system of government form into parliamentary system of government. According to the Commission, the functioning system of government does not solve two radical problems: what happens if the NA majority is opposed to the RA President and the second, what happens if there is no contradiction and the RA President enjoys the support of the parliamentary majority, and the balance of the authorities acting in practice, how in practice political responsibility will be implemented and who will bear responsibility and for what.

He also touched upon the amendments which relate to the extension of the opposition’s authorities.

Hrayr Tovmasyan, the member of the Specialized Commission on the Constitutional Amendments, the NA Chief of Staff-General Secretary, referred to the choice of the system of government form, noting that there is no system which has only positive sides and on the contrary, there is no system which has exclusively negative sides. To his assessment, in the choice of any system of government form we should bring together the strong and weak sides of the system and find the optimal version, bringing together the national features. Touching upon the system of government forms of the European Union 28 member countries, he has noted that only Cyprus has presidential system of government form from them, Romania, France and Portugal are countries of semi-presidential system of government, and the other countries have parliamentary system of government form. Referring to the views that the change of the system of government form will result in the super centralization of the power, he presented the manifestation of the super centralization in case of co-relation of the same forces in the presidential or semi-presidential and parliamentarian systems of government. In this context Mr Tovmasyan touched upon the formation of the power wings, in this issue the opposition’s participation that unlike the functioning system by the draft law the political majority should share its power with the political minority. According to the draft law, a number of officials will be elected with the third fifth, meanwhile the only official elected by the voters’ three fifth is the RA Human Rights defender now. The Speaker talked about the stable majority idea, in this issue presenting the international experience. Summing up his word Mr Tovmasyan has noted that in the version of the draft law debated in the Specialized Commission and agreed with the Venice Commission the concerns sounded in the press and by the political forces are mainly cleared.

The key speakers answered the interpellations of the participants of the parliamentary hearings which related to the necessity of the constitutional reforms, the idea of the stable parliamentary majority, the definition of the role of the Armenian Church by the Constitution in a special way, the right to life, the efficiency of the parliamentarian system of government and other problems.

The NA deputies presented their views on the constitutional reforms.

The NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, touching upon the advantages of the draft amendments of the RA Constitution, has noted that by the package an attempt is made to develop the democracy in Armenia, moreover, the principle of separation of powers is added by the principle of the political balance. He has stated that by the draft law it is designed to raise the role of the opposition: one of the NA three Deputy Speakers should be a representative of the opposition, the mother laws should be passed not by simple majority, but by the three fifth, an opportunity is given to create Investigative Committees, i. e. the political majority cannot solve important problems without the participation and compensations of the opposition. An opportunity is given for the political forces relatively defeated in the elections to have a big role. The NA Deputy Speaker highlighted the amendment by which the representatives of the national minorities are given quota which fixes the democratic principles of our country.

By Levon Zurabyan’s assessment, there is no need to amend the Constitution: thus the ANC refuses the process of the constitutional reforms. By Hovhannes Margaryan’s assessment, we more specify the provision of passing to proportional electoral order distinctly define the deputies’ number. He believes that in the basis of the systems of government the guarantees which will give an opportunity to rule out the political monogamy, would be fixed, should provide mechanism of mutual checks and balances between different wings. Khosrov Harutyunyan, considering successful the holding of the hearings, talked about the political necessity of holding constitutional reforms. In this context he touched upon the political crises created after the presidential elections in our country. Mher Shahgeldyan touched upon the bases of the constitutional order, the chapters relating to the human and citizen’s fundamental rights and freedoms and the main issues of the authorities’ balance. Mr Shahgeldyan also talked about the authorities of the RA President and the Prime Minister. Gagik Minasyan expressed his gratitude to the Specialized Commission for the wide scale work done. He touched upon the main shortcomings of the semi-presidential system of government model, expressing conviction that the necessity of the constitutional reforms is evident. Being against the new form of system of government Hrant Bagratyan was for the two-chamber system of government model. He expressed his position on the theses concerning the economy in the document. According to Karen Avagyan, the draft law gives distinctions in different spheres, due to which the democracy and stability are strengthened: by the new Constitution the role of the parties and political forces will be strengthened. Artsvik Minasyan has stated that the difference of the systems of government is who forms the executive power. According to the deputy, the ARF as a political force will defend the initiative. Artak Zakaryan talked about the necessity of the constitutional amendments. He has noted that the presented document is legal, however by its content and type it will be of political importance for the Armenian people. Defending the new administration model under proposal, he has noted that changing the state structure the way of thinking will be changed in the society that the power belongs to one person. Gagik Melikyan expressed satisfaction to the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs for organizing the hearings and the Specialized Commission for the wide-scale of work. Speaking about the draft law, the deputy has underlined that the main goal of the document is to form a stable political situation.

In their speeches the participants highlighted the rise of the regulating role of the state, touched upon the specification of a series of provisions and presented their considerations and recommendations on them.

In their final speeches the key speakers touched upon the sounded views and presented clarifications. It was noted that during the hearings views were sounded which can be guidelines for the Specialized Commission in terms of making appropriate amendments. An opinion was sounded that by the adoption of the draft law we’ll have the political system where the citizen will be protected, the courts will be independent, the political power will be responsible, and the people will have an opportunity to elect and change the government through elections.

Summing up the hearings, Hovhannes Sahakyan thanked the attendees for taking part in them and submitting views. The Committee Chairman expressed hope that the submitted recommendations would be taken into consideration by the Committee.