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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MONITORING: PARLIAMENT SEEN AS "ADJUNCT" TO GOVERNMENT
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/44399/armenian_parliament_aram_manukyan_prosperous_armen ia_party
POLITICS | 13.03.13 | 15:15
Photo: www.parliament.am
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The level of initiative displayed by the fifth convocation parliament
of Armenia is assessed by experts as lower than that of the previous
parliament, both in terms of law-making and influence in political
decisions.
Lusine Vasilyan, in charge of NA Monitoring project which has
implemented the research, says if in case with the parliament of
the fourth convocation the government-National Assembly ratio in
legislative initiatives was 86 to 14 respectively, the current ratio
(during its two sitting periods) is 94 to 5.
During its two sitting periods the parliament of fifth convocation
has adopted 94 laws, 89 of which were government-initiated.
Aram Manukyan, secretary of oppositional Armenian National Congress
(ANC) faction, says the data make it clear that the National Assembly
has turned into government-adjacent body.
"Two of the parliament-authored laws concerned the inner rules of
parliament procedures and only three were related to the society,"
he says.
"Monitoring of the National Assembly's Fifth Convocation" report says
that the coalitional factions - the Republican (RPA) and the Rule of
Law parties - voted against only one percent of the bills submitted
to the parliament during the fall sitting, which Vasilyan says is an
indicative of their unreserved consent with the government policies.
"The voting record of both these factions has almost the same picture -
mainly 'for' votes. In case with the Prosperous Armenia Party faction,
abstentions prevail, conditioned by its neither pro-establishment
nor oppositional status. The Armenian National Congress, Armenian
Revolutionary Party (ARF) and Heritage have more balanced ratio of
'for', 'against' and 'abstained' votes," she says.
Seventy bills among the adopted 94 are of social-economic character.
During the fall sitting none of the opposition's legislative
initiatives was approved.
Drawing parallels between the pre-election party platforms and their
post-election activities, project member, expert Gor Abrahamyan says
there was an inconsistency in RPA's activities related to the Ethics
Commission. ANC did not have a complete platform, rather a collection
of platforms, and acted more from the position of objecting and
politicizing everything, with little focus on substantial discussions.
"Heritage and ARF have acted in accord with their platforms, although
their platforms have some romantic approaches, meaning there is no
clear action plan, for example in Dashnaks' case, on how to create
200,000 jobs their platform claims possible," says Abrahamyan. ARF
MP Artsvik Minasyan counters that all the calculations are available
upon request and have not been included in the platform because of
their volume.
The monitoring report points out that judging from the declared
finances 20 law-makers of the Armenian parliament are millionaires.
The top five include four Prosperous Armenia Party MPs - Gagik
Tsarukyan, Vahan Karapetyan, Gurgen Arsenyan, Grigori Margaryan and
Republican Samvel Alexanyan.
PAP is the richest faction with its 36 MPs who have declared total of
around $98.1million income, followed by the ruling Republicans. The
total of financial means declared by the Heritage's 5 MPs is $118,000,
which is the lowest amount among all the other factions.
The statistic survey has been held by Mandate informational NGO within
the framework of the Monitoring of the NA Legislative Activities
project. The full report can be found at www.parliamentmonitoring.am
website.
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/44399/armenian_parliament_aram_manukyan_prosperous_armen ia_party
POLITICS | 13.03.13 | 15:15
Photo: www.parliament.am
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The level of initiative displayed by the fifth convocation parliament
of Armenia is assessed by experts as lower than that of the previous
parliament, both in terms of law-making and influence in political
decisions.
Lusine Vasilyan, in charge of NA Monitoring project which has
implemented the research, says if in case with the parliament of
the fourth convocation the government-National Assembly ratio in
legislative initiatives was 86 to 14 respectively, the current ratio
(during its two sitting periods) is 94 to 5.
During its two sitting periods the parliament of fifth convocation
has adopted 94 laws, 89 of which were government-initiated.
Aram Manukyan, secretary of oppositional Armenian National Congress
(ANC) faction, says the data make it clear that the National Assembly
has turned into government-adjacent body.
"Two of the parliament-authored laws concerned the inner rules of
parliament procedures and only three were related to the society,"
he says.
"Monitoring of the National Assembly's Fifth Convocation" report says
that the coalitional factions - the Republican (RPA) and the Rule of
Law parties - voted against only one percent of the bills submitted
to the parliament during the fall sitting, which Vasilyan says is an
indicative of their unreserved consent with the government policies.
"The voting record of both these factions has almost the same picture -
mainly 'for' votes. In case with the Prosperous Armenia Party faction,
abstentions prevail, conditioned by its neither pro-establishment
nor oppositional status. The Armenian National Congress, Armenian
Revolutionary Party (ARF) and Heritage have more balanced ratio of
'for', 'against' and 'abstained' votes," she says.
Seventy bills among the adopted 94 are of social-economic character.
During the fall sitting none of the opposition's legislative
initiatives was approved.
Drawing parallels between the pre-election party platforms and their
post-election activities, project member, expert Gor Abrahamyan says
there was an inconsistency in RPA's activities related to the Ethics
Commission. ANC did not have a complete platform, rather a collection
of platforms, and acted more from the position of objecting and
politicizing everything, with little focus on substantial discussions.
"Heritage and ARF have acted in accord with their platforms, although
their platforms have some romantic approaches, meaning there is no
clear action plan, for example in Dashnaks' case, on how to create
200,000 jobs their platform claims possible," says Abrahamyan. ARF
MP Artsvik Minasyan counters that all the calculations are available
upon request and have not been included in the platform because of
their volume.
The monitoring report points out that judging from the declared
finances 20 law-makers of the Armenian parliament are millionaires.
The top five include four Prosperous Armenia Party MPs - Gagik
Tsarukyan, Vahan Karapetyan, Gurgen Arsenyan, Grigori Margaryan and
Republican Samvel Alexanyan.
PAP is the richest faction with its 36 MPs who have declared total of
around $98.1million income, followed by the ruling Republicans. The
total of financial means declared by the Heritage's 5 MPs is $118,000,
which is the lowest amount among all the other factions.
The statistic survey has been held by Mandate informational NGO within
the framework of the Monitoring of the NA Legislative Activities
project. The full report can be found at www.parliamentmonitoring.am
website.