Deadlines Not Met: In Pursuit of the Concept of Constitutional Reforms

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports: "Despite the change in the deadlines for presenting the concept of constitutional reforms already being altered once by the order of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the commission seems to be struggling to complete its work within those deadlines and present the concept. As known, by the order of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on February 12, 2020, a specialized commission for constitutional reforms was established, which was supposed to develop the concept of constitutional reforms within a three-month period after commencing its activities and present a draft of amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia by September 1, 2020. However, taking into account the state of emergency established in Armenia since March 16, it was decided to change the deadlines, and it was set that the concept of constitutional reforms should be developed by December 31, 2020, and the draft of amendments to the Constitution should be prepared and presented to the office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia by June 30, 2021.

Now, despite the commission, consisting of 16 main members, already conducting meetings, they are not doing so intensively. From February until now, they have only voted on three questions, which are included in the concept of constitutional reforms: the preservation of the government-parliamentary system, the abolition of the stable majority, and the establishment of the Supreme Court. Moreover, while the other two decisions were made easily, the last decision was made by a margin of one vote. Now, according to our information, the issue of endowing the Prosecutor General with new powers is on the agenda.

Interestingly, by the decision of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on September 18, a person with three or more unexcused absences from the commission's activities may be dismissed from it. This is not a coincidence, as the meetings previously scheduled for every Friday often do not take place due to the members of the commission being busy or not showing up for meetings."