On 7 July, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian stated that he must be legally empowered to appoint, rather than nominate, three of the nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court (CC). This was said during a meeting with several members of a government commission tasked with drafting new amendments to the Armenian Constitution. 

He complained about the “ceremonial” power vested in the presidency. “If you ask my opinion, the solution is very simple. The president of the republic should appoint the three Constitutional Court members reserved for him,” he said. Sarkissian argued that as things now stand now, he may “endlessly” propose candidates not acceptable the parliament majority. He said this could potentially disrupt the work of the country’s highest court. 

Armenia’s Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan disagreed with Sarkissian’s view on the issue. “I think that the existing mechanism [for the appointment of Constitutional Court judges] is quite good,” he told journalists. “What the president of the republic is proposing requires fresh constitutional changes. As you know, there is a commission discussing and drafting possible constitutional changes, and I think that the president could officially or orally appeal to the commission,” he added.

Under the existing constitutional provisions that came into effect in 2018, the president of the republic, the government and the country’s judges each nominate three Constitutional Court judges who can then be confirmed or rejected by the Armenian parliament. Both the current and former parliaments repeatedly rejected Constitutional Court justices nominated by Sarkissian in 2018 and 2019. Only one candidate proposed by the head of state has been appointed by the National Assembly so far.