The Parliament's Regulations are Changing by the CPP, Addressing Ghazinyan's Election Issue

The majority in the National Assembly has decided to resolve the long-pending issue of electing a candidate from the opposition for the vice-chairman position of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security. To this end, Vilén Gabrielyan, a member of the 'Civil Contract' faction, is proposing amendments to the constitutional law regulating the National Assembly's rules.

The draft of the proposed amendments was discussed today during a session of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Legal Affairs. Presenting the draft, Gabrielyan noted that the National Assembly's regulations stipulate that the election of the vice-chairman of the committee should take place within five days after the formation of the committee. However, he stressed that the law does not clarify what happens if a vice-chairman is not elected.

“The law has shown that there is a gap in practical application regarding this matter,” said Gabrielyan. He pointed out that the Standing Committee on Defense and Security is currently facing this issue, but it cannot be ruled out that a similar issue could arise in any other committee of the National Assembly in the future.

“This draft is not about me wanting to take away your allotted deputy position, excuse my expression, from you through the D'Hondt method. That position is indeed yours. I simply want to ensure that such a case does not happen again in the future, and we regulate this issue,” Gabrielyan remarked, addressing Aram Vardevanyan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction.

The opposition member recalled the events surrounding the vice-chairman of the committee and concluded: “In this way, neither parliamentarism is respected nor the principle of democracy; rather, you are providing a legal basis for decisions based solely on specific subjective perceptions.”

The committee chair, Vladimir Vardanyan, commented that the proposed amendment does not deprive the opposition of the right to propose a new candidate. “The draft does not state anywhere, in any form or interpretation, that if a person is not elected to the position of the committee's vice-chairman, then they can never be nominated again for that position. No, it states the following: if not elected, a new candidate should be presented,” Vardanyan clarified.

At the end of the discussion, the committee voted on the draft and approved it with 7 votes in favor and 3 against. It will be presented to the National Assembly for further discussion soon.

It should be noted that after the meeting of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, a session of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security is also scheduled, which, unlike the previous 16 sessions, does not include the election of a vice-chairman on its agenda.

Recall that the 'Armenia' faction has proposed Arthur Ghazinyan's candidacy for the vice-chairman position of the committee 14 times, while the majority in the National Assembly has rejected him 14 times. The opposition has declared that they will no longer propose candidates and have since stopped participating in the committee's meetings.

During the committee's meeting on December 14, chairman Andranik Kocharyan announced that the CPP was not nominating a candidate since they were not in a hurry to take the vacant position available to the opposition and had given the opposition one week to respond. A week later, on December 21, Kocharyan stated that the 'Civil Contract' would again not propose a candidate but they were demonstrating good will by granting the opposition another opportunity to reach a consensus with the ruling party and propose a new candidate. “If this does not happen, I am sure that the CPP will present a candidate for the deputy position in our faction during the next extraordinary session,” he said.

In turn, the opposition declared that the committee chairman's statement contradicted the law regulating the National Assembly, which stipulates that the candidate for the chairman of the committee should be proposed by the opposition.