Azernews.Az

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Armenian opposition parties will rally on September 30 as the government has left unanswered their list of 12 demands.

Two opposition leaders Levon Ter-Petrosyan from the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Gagik Tsarukyan from the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) met on Sept. 9 to discuss the preparations for the rally.

Two other opposition parties are also expected to join the protests.

The leaders plan to tour the regions to get support to the upcoming protest rally.

Ter-Petrosyan and Tsarukyan are against the constitutional amendments proposed by the government in June, 2014.

The draft Concept of the Armenian Constitution states that the forthcoming constitutional amendments will be passed with the purpose of establishing "effective mechanisms of real appreciation of human rights and freedoms as an ultimate value, limitation of government powers, real separation of powers, and a working system of checks and balances," aimed at the implementation of the constitutional principle of a social state. The government assures that it will correct the existing deficiencies in interaction between the institutions of power, define the president's authority as a guarantor of the Constitution's implementation, provide legislative authorities with effective controlling means, and more clearly divide executive authority between the president and the Cabinet of Ministers.

The opposition forces also call on the government to respond to the list of 12 specific demands they issued earlier in June.

In June, 2014 Armenia's four main political parties challenging President Serzh Sarkisian prepared a list of concrete demands. They warned the administration to promptly reply their demands, otherwise threatening with the calls to oust the state power.

The list includes demands which the four parties adopted to escape the difficulties facing Armenia. They are sure that Sargsyan's authority should cut taxes for small businesses, considerably increase subsidies to farmers, avoid rise in public transport fares and eliminate economic monopolies.

The opposition forces also demand the amendments to Electoral Code to apply the parliamentary elections based on a party-list basis and protest Armenia's joining the Russia-led Customs Union.

The protesters will also call on President Serzh Sargsyan to resign.