Coronavirus Reaches National Assembly and Disrupts All Plans: 'Zhoghovurd'

“Zhoghovurd” newspaper reports: “This is the last week of Hrayr Tovmasyan’s tenure as the president of the Constitutional Court. This Friday, Hrayr Tovmasyan is required by law to vacate the president’s office, while CC members Alvina Gyulumyan, Felix Tokhyan, and Hrant Nazaryan will leave the Constitutional Court,” announced Armenian Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan yesterday.

With these changes, there will be three vacant judge positions in the Constitutional Court, and until the full composition is restored and a new president is elected from that new body, the oldest judge, Ashot Khachatryan, will temporarily hold the president's position.

What will happen in the case of vacant judges' positions? Following the publication of the law by the speaker of the National Assembly, appointments for the vacant positions in the Constitutional Court will be carried out successively by the government, the president of the Republic of Armenia, and the General Assembly of Judges after the enforcement of Part 3, Article 7 of the Constitution.

According to the “Law on the Constitutional Court,” appointments must be made no later than one month after the judge’s powers cease or are terminated. Furthermore, the amendments to the “NA Regulations” law, signed by President Armen Sargsyan on June 24 and previously adopted by the National Assembly, stipulate that voting for candidates for all three vacant positions will occur on the same day through secret ballot, requiring at least three-fifths of the total votes of the deputies.

However, a rather curious situation has arisen: when and how should the selection of CC judges be organized within the parliament to ensure the participation of the required number of deputies? It should be noted that the ruling “My Step” faction will need at least 79 votes, or three-fifths of the total votes, to elect all three CC members and restore the body.

The issue is that the coronavirus has reached the National Assembly: it was revealed yesterday that more than ten deputies from the “My Step” faction have tested positive for the virus, and before that, it was already announced that the Deputy Speaker of the NA, Vahe Enfiajyan, had also been infected. Now, isolated deputies are present in all factions within the parliament.

As it is known, on July 7, the Constitutional Court will examine the constitutionality of the article present in the charges against Robert Kocharyan, and the authorities want to expedite this process to ensure a new composition before the examination of this issue. In this situation, where the coronavirus has reached the parliament, the authorities are still unsure how to organize the election of new CC members to avoid facing this fact directly.