According to constitution expert Vardan Poghosyan, the Civil Contract party will not have ⅔ of the vote in parliament and, therefore, it will not be able to pass constitutional laws or initiate constitutional amendments on its own. If the ruling party intends on making such legislative amendments, then the ruling party must negotiate with the two opposition factions.
In the end, if, say, the three factions agree that the Constitution must be amended in one way or another, then what will prevent them from cooperating on this issue? That is a typical practice in developed democratic states. The political culture there not only does not rule out, but also encourages normal business and even friendly relations between the ruling and opposition factions. Such cooperation was also possible in Armenia’s former parliament, and there are at least two reasons for that. The first is that the opposition forces in the 7th parliament were not truly opposition forces from the beginning. Both Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia immediately stood next to Pashinyan after the revolution of 2018, and they even became part of the government for some time.
In any case, I must remind you that the Dashnaks also voted in favor of Pashinyan becoming Prime Minister, and they were also represented in the government. (Then, the Dashnak and Prosperous Armenia ministers were removed during another one of the Prime Minister’s nervous breakdowns). The second reason for cooperation in the former parliament was that the head of Prosperous Armenia is Gagik Tsarukyan, who is a businessman and, therefore, vulnerable; the government can send any tax inspectors or other forces to him at any time. There were also other people within Prosperous Armenia against whom the government had levers. One of them was Sergey Bagratyan, who smoothly wound up within Civil Contract’s ranks.
In this parliament, the Armenia and I Have Honor alliances were initially formed as irreconcilable opponents of the current government, and during the election campaign, everything was said about Pashinyan and his team. To be fair, the latter was much more unrestrained and rude. So far, I do not imagine that any cooperation between them and the Civil Contract is possible. But the situation may change. In any case, the absence of two former presidents in the parliament is a positive factor. One did not run in the first place, the other will most likely resign. The rest of the opposition MPs are no longer obliged to use harsh rhetoric, and this was particularly evident from the press conference organized by the leader of the I Have Honor alliance, Artur Vanetsyan, this week. So, opposition alliances have the opportunity to “modernize” over time, and no longer be perceived as representatives of the “former regime.”
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Aram Abrahamyan
