Yesterday the parliament discussed the bill on amendment to the law on Referendum proposed by the government, which suggests to entitle the government to initiate referendums as well.
According to the existing law only the parliament and speaker can initiate referendums. By the way, the parliament and speaker can initiate referendums only to adopt Constitutional amendments, Constitution and laws. According to this amendment, the government will be entitled to find out the opinion of the society concerning the most important issues concerning state issues and statehood. By the way, this amendment only entitles this right to the government, thus the parliament and the speaker will not have that right any more. According to this bill, this right will be entitled to the government only and the government sent this bill to the parliament with the request to discuss and adopt it by second reading as soon as possible within 24 hours. According to the government, the reason of this amendment is that they want to know the opinion of the society concerning state issues and statehood, discover their opinions, as well as provide participation of the society in the decision making processes of such important issues. However, due to the fact that the government hurries to adopt this decision we may assume that it is connected with the issue of Karabakh. During the recent months the talks and negotiations over the conflict of Karabakh have been activated and different officials and representatives of European institutions make announcements concerning the possibility of settling the conflict during several months. According to the proposed amendment, the government can organize a referendum in 40 days after its adoption. If this amendment is adopted at the upcoming sessions of the parliament, the government will already have the right to organize a referendum at the end of January. Rumors are circulating in the political field concerning the possibility that the conflict of Karabakh may be in the final phase of settlement in February. “Why is the government proposing such amendment now? Is it connected with the conflict of Artsakh? Do you think that the government may decide to organize a referendum to find out the opinion of the society concerning joining Armenia with Artsakh?” asked Heritage party representative Zaruhi Postanjyan to justice minister Gevorg Danielyan, who presented the bill. “Not only me, but no other minister can go forward so far from the current developments and forecast. To explain theoretically, any issues, including issues concerning both inner and foreign policies, and the issues you said can become subject to referendum in order to discover the civic opinion,” said Gevorg Danielyan.
“This amendment has certain political motivations, and maybe the purpose is to discover the civic opinion concerning Karabakh conflict settlement issues. Due to the fact that this issue is urgent for the government I think that it is connected with the issue of Karabakh,” said MP Viktor Dallakyan to our correspondent. Certainly it is hard to imagine which are the specific issues concerning the conflict of Karabakh to be brought up for referendum. It is hard to imagine whether the issue to be brought up for a referendum concerns returning liberated lands, the status of Karabakh or any other related issues. “Do you think that it is possible that the issues may be brought up in a way so that may be manipulated by the government or the president, for instance the issue whether Aghdam is our land or no,” asked Heritage faction member Stepan Safaryan. The answer of Gevorg Danielyan is “no”. Stepan Safaryan says that this bill contradicts the Constitution because it does not envisage any provision on organizing advisory referendums. If the government wants to make changes it should change the Constitution as well. It is not excluded that the pressure on the authorities has grown so much that they want to refer to the civic opinion this time. Or, it may be the vice versa and maybe the authorities want to use the civic opinion to establish tolerance and under the cover of tolerance sign a document. This bill proposed by the government was discussed by 20-25 MPs in the parliament.
Viktor Dallakyan is a co-author of the law on Referendum and this time he has a recommendation to the mentioned bill to entitle people to organize referendums as well. “According to the Constitution, the authority and power in the country belongs to the people. People are realizing government through fair elections, referendums, as well as state and through municipal government bodies. Accordingly, if people realize their government through referendums as well it would be logical to include a provision entitling them to initiate referendums on important issues,” says Viktor Dallakyan.
According to the bill, the government shall agree the issues subject to a referendum with the president in advance. Dallakyan is suggesting to take this provision out. “According to Article 86 of the Constitution the president can suspend the application of the government’s decisions for one month and apply to the Constitutional Court. In other words the president can put veto at any decision of the government. Accordingly, the president has the power to cancel any decisions. This norm should be excluded because it already exists in the Constitution,” says Viktor Dallakyan.
Today the parliament will discuss the bill on amending the law on Referendum and definitely will adopt it by first or second reading.