Yesterday Naira Zohrabyan, the leader of the PAP parliamentary group, made a statement saying that in the run-up to the presidential election, the PAP would begin political consultations with other political forces on switching to a parliamentary system. The party will hold discussions with different political forces to find out whether there is a possibility to rally around this idea. During conversations with different political forces of the Republic of Armenia, www.aravot.am tried to find out their attitude toward the PAP initiative.
Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, a member of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP), said during a conversation with us that he agreed with the PAP proposal and went into detail, “For a country like the Republic of Armenia, switching to a parliamentary system is one of the necessary conditions. The whole presidential system shows that we do not avoid corruption risks, clan economy, different vicious phenomena, since everything is in the hands of one man and everything is decided by him. The same problems will occur in the other system too, since elections underlie everything. If in that case, elections are conducted in the same way as now, there will be no difference between the presidential and the parliamentary systems, since that dull majority will be in the parliament, the Speaker will do what the President does. We should have a civil society before that; we just have to hold really democratic elections.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
