Constitutional Court Against Nikol Pashinyan: The People

According to the "Zhoghovurd" newspaper, the Constitutional Court of Armenia recognized the controversial amendments to the "National Assembly Rules" law, adopted on October 2, 2018, as compliant with the Constitution yesterday. This decision, by the way, was entirely expected at least for us.

The "Zhoghovurd" newspaper had written months ago that the Constitutional Court intended to recognize the legislative amendments as constitutional. Moreover, discussions on this issue at the Constitutional Court had been delayed for some time to find and formulate appropriate justifications. However, remember how the adoption of this bill at the time shook the political arena, becoming the cause of dramatic events.

According to the bill, if there are obstacles to continuing the National Assembly session, the session must be suspended rather than considered failed. There was an opinion that at that time, the National Assembly majority was theoretically trying to hinder the process of holding extraordinary elections after the Prime Minister's resignation.

When it became clear that the Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia Party, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation factions would vote in favor of the bill in an extraordinary session, a huge crowd gathered near the National Assembly on the call of Prime Minister Pashinyan, effectively surrounding the legislative body and 'capturing' the deputies.

To secure votes in favor of the bill, Pashinyan expelled the Prosperous Armenia Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation from power. It was at the gathering of the crowd near the National Assembly that the Prime Minister signed a proposal addressed to the President of Armenia regarding the release of individuals appointed as ministers from those parties' quotas.

In essence, the adoption of this bill accelerated the premature dissolution of the previous parliament and the holding of extraordinary elections. The representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, told the "Zhoghovurd" newspaper that what happened is proof that they were right.

Meanwhile, MP Hovik Aghazaryan from the "My Step" faction, when asked if the uproar raised was in vain, responded: "What happened on October 2 was multilayered. It involved both political and legal issues."

For more details, refer to today's edition of the newspaper.