We Are Not Participating in This Entire Process: LHK on Voting for Supreme Judicial Council Members

The 'Enlightened Armenia' faction in the National Assembly of Armenia is not participating in the discussions regarding the election of members of the Supreme Judicial Council and will also not take part in the voting.

This was announced by faction member Taron Simonyan during a conversation with journalists in parliament. Simonyan indicated that at the start of the extraordinary session, he wished to make a statement regarding the proceedings, but either the procedure did not allow him to do so or the chair did not notice, and they subsequently left the meeting hall as a faction.

According to the LHK, the role of the opposition in judicial reforms has been disregarded. “Even in the Supreme Judicial Council, attempts by the opposition to nominate candidates have been thwarted by the government. Therefore, the opposition has been effectively excluded from participating, directly or indirectly, in judicial reforms. Once again, candidates were proposed without discussions with the opposition, and naturally, we cannot tolerate this. We are not participating in this entire process,” the MP stated, adding that they will not participate in the voting as well.

Simonyan noted that professionally, they have no issues with the candidates and believe both are professional nominees. However, the decision of the faction is political.

The National Assembly is discussing the election of members of the Supreme Judicial Council at the extraordinary session. The 'My Step' faction has presented the nominations of Gagik Jhangiryan and Davit Khachatryan.