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Republican lawmaker is against Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s proposal

Under the new Constitution, no force can form an absolute majority in parliament. In that case “What is a stable majority?” “In the second round, people are to decide which political force or alliance they are going to give a mandate to form a government,” says Artsvik Minasyan, a senior member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun. He adds that under the proposed constitutional changes any political force can come to power in the first or second round. “Let us suppose that the Republicans scored 30 percent votes in the first round, the party that came second garnered 25 percent. The other parties have a total of 45 percent of votes. In that case, this 45% can unite against the Republican’s 30%. Alternatively, they can unite with the runner-up that has 25% of votes and form a government in the first round,” Mr Minasyan said. At the same time, he does not exclude that the runner up may not want to contest a run-off. “Yet, it does not mean that the force or alliance that came first can form a government alone. In that case, new elections will be held in the country.” Republican Vahran Baghdasaryan says his party ‘does not feel particularly bad’ in the semi-presidential system of government. “Should the Republicans want to solve their problems, we would apply simply methods: we would leave the current semi-presidential system, form a majority in the National Assembly, appoint the acting president prime minister and strengthen his powers. This is what the opposition claims today,” he said. Mr Baghdasaryan says he does not want the existing system of government any longer; everything is clear for the Republicans: no matter how many seats they took on the proportional ticket, they had the overwhelming majority under the majoritarian system. Under the proposed constitutional amendments, no party will have a crushing majority even in the second round. “Even if you score 99% of votes in the second round, which is practically impossible, you still cannot have more than 54% of seats in parliament,” he stressed. Armen Martirosyan, Vice-Chairman of the Heritage Party, says the new Constitution is not aimed at ensuring a single-party system rather than switching to a parliamentary government. “They are already showing the country they want to have by amending the Constitution. Today I learnt that Tigran Khachatryan, the notorious son of Syunik Governor Suren Khachatryan, has been appointed Advisor to the Director of “Hayantar” (ArmForest) SNCO. After the adoption of the Constitution, he will likely be appointed Director of the SNCO,” Mr Martirosyan said. Vahram Baghdasaryan is against Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s proposal who said he hoped the country’s leadership would delay the process of adopting the new Constitution or at least give up the intention of rigging the referendum outcome at all costs.