The Leader of Absent MPs Once Again from the Prosperous Armenia Party: Monitoring of the National Assembly

Who are the most active, the quietest, the most absent, and the richest MPs? The results of the monitoring of the activities of the second session of the 7th convocation of the National Assembly have been presented.

During the second session of the 7th convocation, out of 143 laws adopted, only 9% were authored by the parliament, while the rest were initiated by the government. In this regard, the ratio between legislative and executive powers has not significantly changed compared to previous ones.

However, what has changed in the new parliament compared to the previous ones? The number of speaking and silent MPs has primarily changed. If almost every second MP was silent in the previous parliament, now five out of six are speaking. This is one of the most important changes.

In terms of percentages, the number of silent MPs from the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) is slightly higher, while the most active are from Lousavorhayastan, where everyone speaks except for one.

Another interesting indicator is the number of absences. The leader of absent MPs is again from the BHK, but there is a different name in the first position. Vardan Ghukasyan has taken over the lead from Gagik Tsarukyan, who held the top position for eight years. Tsarukyan is now ranked eighth in terms of absences.

Almost half of the laws were adopted during extraordinary sessions of the National Assembly. The MP who voted the most “for” is Janibek Hayrapetyan from the BHK, while the one who voted the most “against” is Vahagn Hovakimyan from My Step. The one who abstained the most is also from My Step: Yerezhanik Hakobyan. Meanwhile, 16 legislative initiatives from the opposition did not even reach the voting stage and were rejected in the permanent committees.

Mikael Melkumyan has been the MP who asked the most questions and made the most speeches. The BHK maintains its leading position also in terms of the financial capabilities of its MPs; however, in general, the current National Assembly has become much poorer compared to the previous one. In the previous assembly, there was one dollar millionaire MP, but now there are two — both from the BHK: Gagik Tsarukyan and David Manukyan. Moreover, the total volume of Tsarukyan’s declared assets, which is about 99 billion drams, constitutes 97% of the declared financial assets of all MPs in the National Assembly.