Samvel Babayan's Signature Campaign Concludes: What Will Be the Next Step?

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports:

“Samvel Babayan has completed a signature campaign in Artsakh, aiming to amend the Constitution to allow individuals who have lived in Armenia for 10 years to also be eligible for the presidency in Artsakh. We asked our source in Artsakh what the next step would be.

“The signatures need to be submitted to the parliament, but besides verifying their authenticity, there is also a substantive issue regarding the signatures. The point is that some signatures were gathered, for instance, by asking if people want their lives to improve. In any case, there are already 11,000 signatures. After the parliament, it needs to be presented to the Constitutional Court, in our case, the Supreme Court, for review regarding compliance with the Constitution. Then it goes back to the parliament, must receive one-third of the votes, and then be put to a referendum.

There is also the question of compliance with the laws of Armenia. So, it’s a very complicated process. However, the most significant issue is the following: one of Nikol Pashinyan's key arguments at the negotiation table is that the people of Artsakh did not elect him, whereas Aliyev was elected by the Azerbaijanis, so he cannot negotiate on behalf of Artsakh. Now, it turns out that an Armenian citizen can come and be elected in Artsakh, meaning Pashinyan's thesis is collapsing.”

How will the largest force in the National Assembly, Araik Harutyunyan's (also a presidential candidate) “Free Homeland,” position itself? “It is not excluded that they will declare a free vote on this matter, because there is a high probability that these signatures and the presented demand will be considered unconstitutional.”

For further details, refer to today’s newspaper edition.