ARMENIA'S AMENDED CONSTITUTION ENTERS INTO FORCE

Armenpress
Dec 8 2005

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS: Armenian authorities announced on December 7 that the revised constitution, which according to official figures of the Central Election Commission (CEC), received the sweeping support of voters in the November 27 referendum, entered into force.

The amended text of the constitution was published a day before by the official bulletin of the government and under the Armenian law the revised constitution enters into force the next day. Volodya Hovhanesian, the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court, said, "since the results of the referendum were not protested within 7 days after the referendum date, the amended constitution enters into force
after it is published by the bulletin."

According to the CEC, around 1.5 million Armenian voters participated in the referendum of whom 93.3 percent backed the proposed amendments. The Armenian opposition that boycotted the referendum, however, claims the ballot was marred with serious breaches. It also claims that actually some 375,000 voters went to the polls which is not enough to meet the required threshold of voter turnout to consider
the referendum valid.