Yelk faction accuses Republicans, ARF and Tsrukyan of behind-the-scenes deal over controversial bill

Armenpress 12:03, 8 October, 2018

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Yelk faction leader Lena Nazaryan says that the Republican (HHK), ARF and Tsarukyan factions of the Armenian parliament are working under the old political reasoning and that they had an agreement regarding the bill on amending the Rules of Procedure law.

The controversial bill is an amendment to the Rules of Procedure law of the parliament, whereby in the event of a parliament session being unable to be held because of lack of quorum, or if lawmakers are anyhow prevented from participating, it will be considered interrupted rather than failed, with a possibility of resuming at a later date. The aim of the bill is apparently a limitation of possible circumstances of dissolution of parliament. The bill was adopted on October 2 during an emergency session of parliament, which sparked protests and demonstrations.

“They had made a deal behind the scenes about this bill. They agreed and thought that it is possible for them to together author a bill, adopt it, forgetting that people outside are noticing it, and it won’t remain without consequences. As we saw, it backfired,” she told reporters today.

She said that political forces must take into account the public demand. “The people are coherent. And if the other parliamentary forces nominate a candidate for prime minister or oppose holding early elections, it will have very dangerous consequences. I hope that the factions will be reasonable and won’t take this step,” she said.  According to her, the public demand is for early elections of parliament to take place as soon as possible.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

 



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