National Assembly Approves Bill on Recording Traffic Violations

The National Assembly today, on September 16, adopted in the first reading the controversial draft law titled 'Features of Administrative Proceedings for Violations of Traffic Rules Detected by Recording Devices,' proposed by the members of the 'My Step' faction, Sisak Gabrielyan and Armen Bambukhchyan. This law aims to enable citizens to record traffic violations and report them to the police in real-time via an application.

The bill was approved with 87 votes in favor, 21 against, and 1 abstention. The votes against came from members of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), who previously expressed a very firm stance against the bill. One BHK member, Arthur Dallakyan, even described the bill as 'devoid of morality.' From the perspective of the BHK faction, it appeared that they considered the proposal as a 'bill to create conflicts' among citizens.

Dallakyan's comments heightened the atmosphere in the National Assembly, leading some deputies to leave the session room to clarify the issue. After a brief conversation lasting several minutes in one of the BHK members' rooms, several deputies from 'My Step' and 'BHK' returned to the session room calmer.

Before the voting on the bill today, BHK member Arman Abovyan pointed out a significant fact: there are currently about 2000 stationary cameras operating in Armenia. According to Abovyan, after the adoption of this law, the number of cameras will significantly increase to over 500,000. He stated, 'Considering the poor state of road traffic and the difficult social situation of Armenian citizens, we will vote against it, as combating impudence and violations should not mean placing this heavy burden on citizens already facing serious social challenges.'

The bill also drew comments from 'My Step' faction member Viktor Yeghibaryan, who stated that this draft law has an exclusively preventive nature. 'The aim is not to impose fines, increase penalties, or add to citizens' burdens; the goal is to reduce accidents and fatalities,' emphasized Yeghibaryan.

Another deputy, Ani Samsonyan from the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), expressed that they will vote in favor of the bill but will have suggestions before the second reading and requested the authors of the bill to work with LHK members accordingly.