I Will Defend the Preservation of the Parliamentary System: Marukyan

Armenia has not completely transitioned from a semi-presidential governance system to a fully parliamentary one. This was stated today, November 30, at the Constitutional Reform Commission meeting by the Special Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia and leader of the Enlightened Armenia party, Edmon Marukyan.

“And now we are discussing whether it is appropriate to revert to a semi-presidential or presidential system when we have not fully implemented the parliamentary model yet. In this regard, since I represent the Enlightened Armenia party here, I want to say that our position has always been that we are a proponent of a European model of governance and have always maintained that parliamentary governance could serve as a good example of democracy and inclusive governance in our case, rejecting the principle of marginalizing any force and attempting to unite all capable forces in the country,” Marukyan stated.

“Now we need to complete parliamentary governance and address the shortcomings that have been intentionally left in the current Constitution, which render the parliament as toothless, preventing mechanisms of checks and balances. We need to change, correct that and have a functional parliamentary system. In this sense, I will advocate for the preservation of the parliamentary system,” Marukyan announced.

Touching upon the shortcomings of the current Constitution, he said, “In the initial phase, the parliamentary group can propose a candidate for prime minister, but it cannot propose a candidate for president. Why is that? Can anyone answer this question? Let me say another thing. In the context of realizing political will, the minority in the parliament opposes any initiative proposed by the majority, which becomes law; however, after that, within the context of checks and balances, it does not have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court.”

Marukyan declared that he would vote in favor of preserving the parliamentary system on behalf of the Enlightened Armenia party. “When we discuss the presidential issue, we have questions about whether we see the point of maintaining such a presidential institute or not, and let’s move on to strengthening the parliament,” he concluded.