National Agenda party slams constitutional reforms as 'anti-legal and anti-constitutional process’

The National Agenda party has criticized the Armenian authorities' move to back the plan for a constitutional referendum, considering the entire process ″anti-constitutional and anti-legal″.

In a statement on Monday, it blamed the parliamentary majority for breaching the legitimate requireement to submit the bill to the Constitutional Court ahead of the planned voting.

The party insists that by failing to seek the high court's professional conclusion (on the measure's constitutionality) the initiators of the bill (the 44 members of the ruling My Step faction in parliament) acted in breach of the Constitution of Armenia, the National Assembly's Rules of Procedure and the law ″On Referendum″.

″As a result of the hastefully arranged voting, the illegal decision on declaring a nationwide referendum was adopted and submitted to the president for signature. Acting in a likewise hasteful manner, the president of Armenia signed the draft decision on constitutional reforms into law and set April 5 as the date of refrendum,″ reads part of the statement.

Highlighting the National Assembly's obligation to apply to the high court, the party claims that its failure to do so amounted to a breach of a vital constitutional norm (prescribed by Article 169).

It further cites Article 86, Chapter 19 of the National Assembly's Rules of Procedure outlining mechanisms of first and second readings for bills proposing amendments to the Constitution.

National Agenda also insists on the unambiguous language of Clause 2, Article 8 of the law ″On Referendum″ (a constitutional legal act) laying out mandatory procedures for similar legislative proposals. 

″Acting in breach of the requirements prescribed by the Armenian Constitution and constitutional laws, the NA majority has initiated an anti-constitutional and anti-legal process in an attempt mislead also the citizens of the Republic of Armenia into all that,″ the party says, calling upon ″state-oriented″ political, non-governmental and professional organizations and all interested citizens to join in a unanimous campaign for reinstating consistutional order and legitimacy in Armenia.

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