Head of the Justice alliance faction, Victor Dallakyan was to blame for this because he was the one manipulating the parliamentary majority. The opposition could manipulate the majority, as a result of which Vahan Hovhannisyan violated the National Assembly regulatory law first and then apologized for that.
On Friday, despite the efforts put in by leader of the Republican faction Galust Sahakyan, the parliamentary constant committee on state and legal issues wasn’t able to give negative marks concerning the bill for founding a commission to investigate the violations committed during the 2003 elections and the 2005 constitutional amendments referendum. The parliament had to vote and make a decision on whether or not to include that bill in the NA agenda or not. In spite of this, while the deputies were getting ready to press their buttons, Victor Dallakyan recommended postponing the voting for a month. As a result, vice speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan, who was presiding the session, decided to bring up this issue for discussion. Later Victor Dallakyan confessed that this was a trick to manipulate the majority and added that the bill had already been included in the parliamentary agenda.
The problem is that the parliamentary majority had to reject all bills proposed by the opposition from the very beginning because, as Mr. Dallakyan says, when the subject of prolonging the voting is not agreed on, that subject is automatically included in the parliamentary agenda. In spite of this, Vahan Hovhannisyan was trying to assure that the subject couldn’t be included in the agenda and that it had to be brought up for voting. After this, Victor Dallakyan and Vahan Hovhannisyan started debating as to who was right. ULP leader Gurgen Arsenyan interrupted their debate and said, “This issue may serve as a firm basis for future conflicts. I mean the fact that when issues are not postponed, they are included in the NA agenda. There have been cases like this before too. I think we should have a break to discuss that issue. Otherwise, you will become a target, Mr. Hovhannisyan, I don’t want you to be criticized”. Then Vahan Hovhannisyan said that he was not afraid of criticism and they had a break. “I don’t care about critics, I don’t worry about that because I know for a fact that I’m right”, said Vahan Hovhannisyan. In spite of this, Vahan Hovhannisyan, who thought he was right to do so, returned to the hall after the break and said that he was wrong. He apologized for his mistake and suggested starting over. “I think it is my fault. I didn’t conduct the discussion in a right way but I did it logically. But sometimes the logical points and the agenda contradict each other. I had to consider the agenda and follow it in a duly manner, but I failed to do so. So I think it will be better for us to get back to where we started from. That voting is not legal because the person proposing to postpone the discussion has to do that with the help of the head commission. And since the commission didn’t do that in this short period, we will now vote for that subject again with the purpose of deciding whether to include it in the agenda or not”, said Hovhannisyan trying to correct his mistake. As for Victor Dallakyan, he didn’t agree and said, “The head commission can bring up issues of postponing discussions if the main speaker makes a proposal. Vahan Hovhannisyan is right from this perspective. But the main speaker has a right to take back his recommendations of postponing their discussion”.
Anyway, the issue was brought up for discussion, but they didn’t have the necessary quorum and the subject was not included in the agenda. Victor Dallakyan said that the voting was illegal. “The parliamentary majority didn’t understand what they were doing and voted for the bill that they were against. It means that the majority large in number lost the game to the minority with good quality”, said Victor Dallakyan concerning the failure. Even though the parliamentary majority managed to leave the bill proposed by the opposition out of the agenda, they were not able to go on working efficiently. G. Sahakyan had this to say regarding this, “I think these two outcomes were in the interests of the opposition. Now the opposition is trying to recover what it has lost. I mean, they are trying to find some things that they can use for their purposes and manipulate. I think they failed this time”. As for Vahan Hovhannisyan, he told us the following, “They wanted to make the voting fail so they can later say that the parliamentary majority can’t do its’ job. This is the problem”.