30/10/2014
September 29, Yerevan. Within the framework of “Increasing the Role of the Civil Society in Political Processes of Armenia” project “Advanced Public Research” Group (APR Group) NGO organised the presentation of research findings and recommendations on Constitutional reforms.
The main goal of the project is to reveal gaps and shortcomings of the current RA Constitution as well as population’s expectations from the new Constitution. During the research 36 in-depth interviews were conducted involving all official, academic and public actors of the process of Constitutional reforms.
Within the framework of the quantitative research, a survey was conducted throughout Armenia among 1300 respondents which allowed to identify expectations of RA citizens from the upcoming reforms and the role of the Constitution in their everyday life.
According to the survey results, 60.1%of population thinks there is no need for change of the Constitution and 81.5% doesn’t trust the process of constitutional reforms at all.
The results of research and the current situation of Armenia were analyzed by the project experts. Part of the experts has the viewpoint that there is a need for reforms, but with certain reservations.
Emphasizing the relevance of transformation from the Presidential governance system to Parliamentary one, experts outline that despite the fact that the Parliamentary governance system is the driving force of democracy any change of the governance system will not be able to prevent the political monopoly as long as there is lack of political culture and legitimacy of electoral processes, and the power center will simply be moved to the Parliament.
