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Minority Challenge: Opposition nearly scuttles government bill by
opting out of parliament vote
Politics | 20.12.12 | 10:38
Photo: www.president.am
Representatives of four minority groups in the Armenian parliament
nearly succeeded in preventing the adoption of controversial
amendments to the Ethics Committee bill by staging a concerted boycott
of the `second-reading' vote on Wednesday, making the parliament
majority work hard for the eventual passage.
The bill opposed by the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC),
Dashnaktsutyun, Heritage and the `alternative' Prosperous Armenia
Party (PAP) implies that the principle of equal representation of all
factions in the parliament panel supposed to look into claims of
unethical behavior of MPs will be replaced by the principle of giving
more weight to the establishment forces in making the decisions.
It had already been passed in the first reading the previous day and
the vote on its final version planned for December 19 looked more like
a pro-forma procedure given the majority enjoyed in the chamber by the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and its junior coalition
partner Orinats Yerkir.
It was then, however, that Dashnaktsutyun lawmaker Vahan Hovhannisyan
realized that if all the four minority factions opted out of the vote,
it could not ensure quorum needed for the passage as only 63 members
of the majority factions were actually present in the chamber that day
(at least 66 votes, or more than half of the votes in the 131-seat
body, are needed for the passage of legislation).
The Dashnaktsutyun representative said their faction would not take
part in the vote and urged his colleagues from the ANC, Heritage and
PAP to follow suit.
The RPA parliamentary leader had to call for a break in the session to
`mobilize' the majority MPs, who eventually adopted the changes in
their final version by a vote of 70 to 6.
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/42159/armenia_parliament_ethics_committee_vote
opting out of parliament vote
Politics | 20.12.12 | 10:38
Photo: www.president.am
Representatives of four minority groups in the Armenian parliament
nearly succeeded in preventing the adoption of controversial
amendments to the Ethics Committee bill by staging a concerted boycott
of the `second-reading' vote on Wednesday, making the parliament
majority work hard for the eventual passage.
The bill opposed by the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC),
Dashnaktsutyun, Heritage and the `alternative' Prosperous Armenia
Party (PAP) implies that the principle of equal representation of all
factions in the parliament panel supposed to look into claims of
unethical behavior of MPs will be replaced by the principle of giving
more weight to the establishment forces in making the decisions.
It had already been passed in the first reading the previous day and
the vote on its final version planned for December 19 looked more like
a pro-forma procedure given the majority enjoyed in the chamber by the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and its junior coalition
partner Orinats Yerkir.
It was then, however, that Dashnaktsutyun lawmaker Vahan Hovhannisyan
realized that if all the four minority factions opted out of the vote,
it could not ensure quorum needed for the passage as only 63 members
of the majority factions were actually present in the chamber that day
(at least 66 votes, or more than half of the votes in the 131-seat
body, are needed for the passage of legislation).
The Dashnaktsutyun representative said their faction would not take
part in the vote and urged his colleagues from the ANC, Heritage and
PAP to follow suit.
The RPA parliamentary leader had to call for a break in the session to
`mobilize' the majority MPs, who eventually adopted the changes in
their final version by a vote of 70 to 6.
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/42159/armenia_parliament_ethics_committee_vote