The fact that the draft of amendments in the Constitution was not adopted at the referendum has its positive aspect. Parliamentary foreign links commission chairman Hovhannes Hovhannisian stated. In his words the main problem lies in the fact that people were not acquainted with these amendments. Besides, the parliamentarian added, the state leadership would have necessary time to elaborate the package of reforms and insert certain amends. He specifically considers that the deputy inviolability as well as majority system of parliamentary election should be cancelled so as it has become fully exhausted. At the same time, as H. Hovhannisian supposes, the given project of constitutional amendments is more close to west standards than the acting Constitution. In his turn head of the electoral staff of the Republican Party of Armenia Galust Sahakian emphasized that such a result was predictable even on the threshold of the referendum as the opposition was actively playing its “trump card” of denying the amendments. Besides, most of the country’s political forces have ignored them being more concerned about the parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, even such an outcome marked an advance towards democracy in Armenia. Sahakyan is sure that the wide discussion of this issue will be continued. Meanwhile, one of the most ardent opponents of the amendments and the author of an alternative package Shavarsh Kocharyan is very glad. He says that the authorities were not very much eager to push them through anyway. Otherwise, they would have to understate the number of voters – a couple of hundreds of thousands – which could not but affect the results of the simultaneous parliamentary elections. Kocharyan said that his amendments, whose gist is transition to parliamentary form of government, continue to remain in the agenda and is certainly due to presentation for approval by the new parliament.
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