The National Assembly deputies will most probably get cards to vote and register at the parliament during the fall session.
The National Assembly came up with the idea of giving cards to MPs in order to get rid of their obsession of voting on behalf of another MP. This way our MPs will get into the habit of “thinking about themselves”.
But voting on behalf of another MP has turned into an old tradition for the MPs; so old that everyone knows which MP votes for whom.
According to head of the National Assembly’s constant committee on state legal issues Raffik Petrosyan, if a certain law prohibits voting on behalf of someone else and sets punishments in case an MP decides to do that, then there will be a decrease in the number of those votes. The card mechanism will also hold MPs back from voting on behalf of their colleagues. On the other hand, Raffik Petrosyan is of the opinion that this will work only if it is prohibited to give the card to someone else.
“If they hand out voting cards, then they must pass a law stating that they can’t vote with another MP’s card,” says R. Petrosyan.
In case that happens, the penalties must be severe. There is already a bill for the “law on the behavior of an MP”, which states the penalties for the given violation. The penalties start from a warning, a notice, up to social reproach and keeping some of the salary.
“These penalties exist all over the world and it would be wrong not to have them at the Armenian National Assembly, especially since the National Assembly’s reputation has gone down. One of the reasons that the National Assembly has lost its reputation is the fact that the MPs don’t show up at the parliament and only come to vote,” says head of the National Assembly constant committee on state legal issues. He adds:
“If there is a certain ban for voting on behalf of another MP and penalties, then the MPs will be more careful and won’t give their cards to a colleague, while the others will be more careful and won’t vote on behalf of others.”
But Petrosyan says that although there will still be some contrabands, however there will be a decrease. Raffi Petrosyan is the author of the bill for the “law on MP behavior” and this bill will be presented to the National Assembly during the four-day session. However, as Petrosyan says, “the government representative did not agree on some clauses stated in the bill. But we have to discuss it and make it go on to the next four-day session.”
“Why are MPs voting on behalf of their colleagues? Are they doing that in exchange for something, or not?”-“168 Hours” asked Petrosyan. Let’s recall that a couple of months ago, there were some rumors in the press that some rich MPs pay their colleagues to vote and register on behalf of them. R. Petrosyan had this to say:
“I don’t think that an MP would do something like that in exchange of something else. That’s simply done through a “friendship”, they want to be heroes. They know that one day that same MP will vote on behalf of them if they are absent.”
“168 Hours” also asked leader of the National Assembly Armenian Republican party faction Galust Sahakyan for his comments. Sahakyan’s response was original as always:
“If the MP whose colleague has voted on behalf of doesn’t complain, then everything is fine,” said G. Sahakyan. He stated: “I have seen this going on since 1995, but I have never noticed any MP complain that another MP has voted on behalf of him. Things like this generally happen at the parliament. But there are other countries where even one MP can vote for the whole faction.”
As for the Armenian parliament, based on what Galust Sahakyan said, there are some Armenian MPs who do that too.
“Each faction decides how it’s going to vote. That is just a matter of technique and will not solve any principal issue concerning the faction.”
But let’s not forget that according to the law, each National Assembly MP must vote for himself.
”That’s why the issue is technical and is not based on principles,” said Sahakyan in closing.
G. Sahakyan has a totally different method for getting rid of those “technical” issues.
“I am in favor of having all the National Assembly sessions shown on television because that will make the MPs more careful. In addition, they will become more active after that.”
MP from the “Justice” faction Vartan Mkrtchyan thinks it’s a shame that these kinds of things must be regulated by the law.
“I don’t have a negative opinion on the card system, but it has gotten up to the point where they are trying to find ways to go against MP voting on behalf of another MP. This means that National Assembly is so weak that it is using techniques to teach the MPs a lesson. A person has to be honest not to do that. If that person were to be elected fairly, then he wouldn’t search for any methods,” says the oppositionist MP.
According to Mkrtchyan, the card will not stand in the MP’s way of voting on behalf of his colleague.
“There is always a con to a pro and only time will show after that,” says Mkrtchyan who believes that even keeping the salary won’t stop the MP from doing that.
Perhaps the most active MPs voting on behalf of their colleagues are the MPs sitting in the last row of the National Assembly hall. They gave a “pretty well performance” during the four-day session by ruining all the plans foreseen by the National Assembly. Although there were only 51 MPs in the hall, however they were able to come up with 70 votes. Since it was obvious that that was fraud, the votes were considered invalid and the decisions didn’t pass. Although MP of the NA Armenian Republican faction Hrant Grigoryan was sitting alone, however it turned out that four absent MPs had voted too. Another MP of the Armenian Republican faction Martin Sukiasyan also voted on behalf of him and his absent colleagues. MP Jonik Abrahamyan, who is the brother of minister of territorial management of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan, usually votes for all his colleagues sitting next to him and did that on that day too. Although the heads of the sessions make observations after the voting, however the MP not only don’t consider that a shame, but also consider it an honor for them.
As for the “Rule of Law” party or the ARF, they don’t attract the journalist’s eye simply because the members sit in the front row of the hall. It’s obvious that voting on behalf of another MP has turned into an old and unforgettable tradition.