President Pressured to Sign Law: Sargsyan Has 21 Days to Make a Decision

The opposition factions in the National Assembly, the 'Armenia' and 'Honorary' blocs, have appealed to the President of the Republic to challenge the recently adopted amendments to the 'Administrative Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia' law in the Constitutional Court. This law will lead to the consolidation of communities.

As a result, local self-government elections will be held in three phases by the end of the year, with the first round on October 17, the second on November 14, and the third on December 5. Cities such as Gyumri, Abovyan, Dilijan, Artashat, Ashtarak, Talin, Ijevan, and many large and small villages will be merged into larger communities.

The opposition has sent approximately seven pages of justifications to the president, arguing why he should not sign this law, hoping that Armen Sargsyan will heed their appeal and approach the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of the law approved by the National Assembly. The president has 21 days to either accept, reject, or refer the law to the Constitutional Court.

If Armen Sargsyan decides to comply with the opposition's demand and go to the Constitutional Court, the government may face issues regarding the deadlines established by law for conducting elections.

Yesterday, we were unable to obtain a comment from the presidential office regarding the president's position. However, we learned that during the meeting between Nikol Pashinyan and Armen Sargsyan on October 1, this issue was also discussed, where Pashinyan attempted to convince or pressure the president to validate the law and not to send the consolidation law to the Constitutional Court.

Currently, the presidential office is working on justifications for how to reject the opposition’s request and argue that the law adopted by the National Assembly is entirely constitutional, eliminating the need for referral to the Constitutional Court.

We also requested comments from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, where they confirmed concerns that if the president decides to send the law to the Constitutional Court, they would face challenges. The ministry's spokesperson Sona Harutyunyan stated that at this moment, they do not want to make assumptions but believe that from a legal standpoint, the project has no issues, and essentially, there are no grounds to challenge the project.

“However, if a contrary decision is made, naturally, problems may arise, since election dates have already been set, political forces are preparing for the elections, it’s an active pre-election period, and naturally, significant issues will emerge related to timelines and preparatory work.”

It remains to be seen why the approval of the necessary legislative changes for the elections has been delayed so much and how elections can be declared without these laws.