Aram Sargsian of the Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party said this is the only way he could poll enough votes for the constitution which the Armenian opposition claims is imposed by Azerbaijan.
“I am sure that Nikol Pashinian also thinks so,” Sargsian, who regularly meets with the premier, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“If you want to get a ‘yes’ vote, 850,000 to one million people should go to the polls so that at least 630,000 of them say yes [to the constitution] as there will also be those saying no,” he said. “In which case will one million people vote? Only if there is an election of the parliamentary and executive authorities.”
Under Armenian law, constitutional changes have to be backed by most of the voters taking part in the referendum. The latter must also account for at least one-quarter of the country’s 2.5 million or so eligible voters.
“As far as I understand the mood of the authorities, they will hold the referendum this fall at the latest, and I have no doubts that it will be held on the same day as fresh parliamentary elections,” claimed Sargsian. “I think they wouldn’t mind doing that this spring. It’s just that organizing a constitutional referendum takes a lot of time.”
In recent months, the Armenian press has been rife with speculation that Pashinian is planning to hold fresh elections in a bid to receive a popular mandate to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. The premier denied this in December.
Two senior members of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party echoed those denials when they commented on Sargsian’s claims.
“We see no need for pre-term elections,” said Vahagn Aleksanian, a deputy chairman of Civil Contract.
The other ruling party figure, Vagharshak Hakobian, spoke of a lack of “public demand” for the snap polls. He said that even the conduct of the constitutional referendum is not a forgone conclusion at the moment.
Pashinian declared last month that Armenia needs a new constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. Analysts believe that he first and foremost wants to get rid of a preamble to the current constitution enacted in 1995.
The preamble makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence adopted by the republic’s first post-Communist parliament. The declaration in turn refers to a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove that reference if it wants to cut a peace deal with his country. Armenian opposition leaders portrayed Aliyev’s statement as further proof that Pashinian is planning to change the constitution at the behest of Baku. Pashinian again denied the opposition claims on Wednesday.