Government Proposes to Expand the Powers of National Assembly President Ararat Mirzoyan

The government has proposed changes to the constitutional law 'Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly' and the law on the 'Corruption Prevention Commission.' This was reported by 168.am.

The proposed amendments suggest that the representatives appointed for the candidate selection process for the members of the Corruption Prevention Commission will be designated not by the National Assembly but by its president, effectively expanding the current powers of the National Assembly President Ararat Mirzoyan.

Varuzhan Hoktanyan, head of programs at the anti-corruption center Transparency International, explained in an interview with 168.am that it is unclear from the government's adopted draft whether the National Assembly president will discuss the candidate's appointment in the National Assembly before designating the representative, which would allow parliamentary factions to express their views on the candidates.

“It is also unclear from the government’s adopted draft what procedure the National Assembly president will use to present the candidate—whether unilaterally, without discussion, or if the candidacy will be submitted to the parliament. Of course, regardless of everything, the candidate will be elected by the majority, it is clear that, in the end, they will make the choice; the issue here is in the discussion of the candidacy. The only problem I see in this draft is that there should be at least some discussion so we know who it is. Discussion would be a democratic approach,” said Hoktanyan.

Regarding the submission of such a decision as a non-reportable issue on the government’s agenda, Hoktanyan stated that he is unaware of what criteria are used to decide whether a particular issue should be considered reportable or non-reportable. “In this case, it seems we are dealing with a show. In reality, when these discussions previously took place, I was in favor of closed meetings provided that after the conclusion of the sessions, a press conference was held regarding the agenda issues. If not, this distinction between reportable and non-reportable issues has become a serious problem,” noted Hoktanyan.