President of Nagorno Karabgh Arkadi Ghukasyan presided the Karabagh Constitution committee a month ago, during which Ghukasyan said that he was happy to see progress and to hear positive remarks from experts. On the same day, Ghukasyan decided that it was time to present the Constitution draft to the National Assembly of Karabagh. According to our sources, the Constitution draft has already been distributed to parliamentarians.
Recently, there have been many talks going on about the whole process and many people think that the chances of Arkadi Ghukasyan getting elected as president for the third time may help approve the Constitution by the end of this year.
According to head of the Karabagh National Assembly “Democracy” faction Vahram Atanesyan, the approval of the Constitution has nothing to do with Ghukasyan getting elected for the third term.
“The presses write that it will be easier for Ghukasyan to get elected for the third time without the Constitution. If the National Assembly of Karabagh approves the Constitution, then the 2007 presidential elections will correspond to what is stated in that Constitution. If not, then that issue will stay on the agenda,” says V. Atanesyan.
As for head of the “Homeland” faction Arayik Harutyunyan, he believes that they should let the lawyers handle this. The “Free Homeland” party, headed by Arayik Harutyunyan, hasn’t made any plans for the upcoming presidential elections.
“It’s time to approve the Constitution, but I don’t know why they postponed it this long and why they suddenly decided to approve now,” said A. Harutyunyan.
Member of the oppositional wing of the “ARF-Movement 88’” faction Gegham Baghdasaryan believes that in order to express opinions on the Constitution and the process of approval, it is important to understand the entire chronology and logic.
“Why are they approving the country’s most significant document now? What stood in the way of approving it a couple of years ago? What were the obstacles and what changed? Did they overcome the obstacles, or not? Does approving the Constitution have to do with governance or is it tied with internal politics? Perhaps it has to do with the Karabagh conflict settlement negotiations. Why aren’t they informing the public about the process?” asks G. Baghdasaryan.
As head of the constitution committee work group Armen Zalinyan said a while back, in a way the draft has to do with the president. It is worth mentioning that the “Law about the President” of the Constitution states that the same person can’t be elected for two terms. That subtext is also stated in the draft. There are different, contradicting opinions on the Constitution and the president’s third term. Citizens say that it’s better to have Ghukasyan stay as president rather than have someone else come to power because “Karabagh is currently going through rough times and it’s not appropriate”. Some people think that nominating Ghukasyan for the third time would mean violating the Constitution. Others believe that it’s up to the voter. Based on some surveys, people say that it’s too early to talk about that. Some citizens stated that the rumors about the Constitution and the president’s third nomination are aimed towards distracting the people from other events concerning Karabagh. Perhaps the events are the new announcements made by the OSCE Minsk Group, the negotiation process, and even the announcement of Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs to “hand over” Karvatchar after the referendum.