Speaker vows commitment to raising opposition’s role in oversight and watchdog circles

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government will remain committed to raising the opposition’s role in the public administration system, especially in human rights protection, anti-corruption and oversight circles, Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan said in a statement.

The Speaker congratulated Haykuhi Harutyunyan on her confirmation as Chair of the Corruption Prevention Commission. Harutyunyan was nominated by the opposition Bright Armenia (Lusavor Hayastan LHK) party.

He recalled that recently parliament passed laws which allocated quotas to the opposition for nominating candidates in autonomous bodies such as the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition, the Public Services Regulatory Commission and the Corruption Prevention Commission.

“In the beginning of the year the ruling majority of parliament endorsed opposition candidates for the positions of both chair and deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on human rights protection (Naira Zohrabyan from BHK was elected chair, and Ani Samsonyan from LHK was elected deputy chair).

In addition to numerous other fundamental democratic changes, we will not deviate from the path of raising the opposition’s role also in public administration and especially in human rights protection, anti-corruption and oversight circles,” Mirzoyan said in the statement.

Earlier on November 19, parliament had installed all five members of the commission.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan