Yesterday, the National Assembly discussed Robert Kocharyan’s second humiliating loss of the year. The first one referred to how former rector of the state university Radik Martirosyan did not get elected as university board president, and the second one was how the coalition’s nominee for ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan lost the election.
What’s interesting is that in the first case, we have the representatives of the executive body; on the other hand, we have the two wings of legislation that are evidently, as they say in soccer, showing a yellow card to Robert Kocharyan. We must mention the fact that both elections took place behind closed doors and if they had been open, then the MPs would be afraid of the president’s orders. However, since the elections were closed, they had nothing to fear. According to one of the MPs:
“They threw all their anger of all these years” and voted against Robert Kocharyan’s nominee for ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan.
Neither of the two candidates were able to get 79 “yes” votes in order to become the second ombudsman of Armenia. 69 MPs voted for Armen Harutyunyan, while 25 voted against. As for oppositionist nominee Ruben Torosyan, he received 25 “for” and 69 “against”.
Not even the open votes helped A. Harutyunyan. Hovik Abrahamyan’s brother Henrik Abrahamyan, who is an MP, even took a picture of his ballot with his cell phone and showed it to the electoral committee in order to prove that he had not cheated. The people that voted openly were Yervand Zakharyan’s brother from abroad Sayad Zakharyan and MP Yerem Karapetyan. Karapetyan, however, was forced to vote again because member of the electoral committee and the “National Unity” faction MP Aghassi Arshakyan had considered the ballot invalid and ripped it apart. Another MP from Sisyan Hovik Azoyan was not satisfied with one vote and asked the committee if the “second round had started or not”.
The coalition’s MPs did not doubt for a second that their nominee was going to win. A. Harutyunyan was also feeling pretty optimistic as he sat in the front row of the National Assembly, knowing that any moment now the electoral committee members would come in and say that he was the new, second ombudsman of Armenia. But as soon as the electoral committee members came inside shaking their heads in dismay, A. Harutyunyan immediately rushed out of the hall and out of the National Assembly building. It was impossible to find him after about 5 minutes because the MPs could not call him. Later in the evening, while talking on the phone, he said” I can’t hear you well” and then didn’t answer any calls.
At first, the coalition was blaming the “People’s MP” faction for A. Harutyunyan’s loss, claiming that if they had not voted “against” him, then maybe their nominee could have won and wouldn’t have to run out of the building ashamed of himself. However, when the member of the faction told the coalition that they had mainly voted “in favor” and that the coalition should blame themselves and explain why 72 of the MPs in the coalition did not vote in favor of A. Harutyunyan, the coalition came up with another variant. During an interview with one of the MPs of the Armenian Republican Party, he said that the reason that their nominee lost was because he boasted himself too much at the National Assembly the day before. According to the MP, he shouldn’t have announced that he didn’t need the votes of the MPs who doubt him. Many MPs were disappointed in his speech and did not give the votes that Harutyunyan needed. According to sources, A. Harutyunyan was the one that spread the rumors that the “People’s MP” members were the ones responsible for his loss and pointed his finger at the MP from Etchmiadzin Hakob Hakobyan, who had announced that he was going to vote against Harutyunyan.
After finding out the results of the election, the leader of the “UN” faction Gurgen Arsenyan told journalists that he had announced that his members are going to vote openly, but they all voted in favor of Harutyunyan and, as the others, he also demanded that the coalition members take some time to think about why things ended up this way.
“We voted openly, but in favor of Harutyunyan. So, the coalition must think about what really happened. We have nothing to hide; our members voted in favor,” said G. Arsenyan.
As for member of the “People’s MP” faction Vahram Baghdasaryan, he said the following in response to all of the accusations.
“We invited Armen Harutyunyan to our session and heard what he had to say. We decided to vote in favor of him. The coalition members should simply ask themselves where their MPs were.”
Republican Galust Sahakyan, who was ready to “bet” that their nominee was going to win, said that the 10 deputies of the coalition had their reasons for being absent and that there is no need to accuse any political party or faction for treating A. Harutyunyan this way.
“After all, it was a secret election and it is very hard to make it that manipulative. I think that is unnecessary,” said G. Sahakyan.
As a matter of fact, while moving the ballot box, we asked G. Sahakyan where they were taking it. He said:
“They are going to do away with it.”
After hearing the results of the election, some MPs joked by saying that G. Sahakyan already knew that “it was already decided that A. Harutyunyan was not going to win”.
But the coalition held an out of turn session last evening and decided to nominate Armen Harutyunyan for ombudsman at the National Assembly.
“We have no other candidate,” said one of the MPs after the session.
In response to the question as to whether or not A. Harutyunyan knew about this, he said:
“We have talked with him. We told him that this is a political issue and he shouldn’t feel ashamed of the small number of votes.”
In addition, during an interview yesterday, Arthur Baghdasaryan said the following when journalists asked him if A. Harutyunyan walked out of the National Assembly because he was offended:
“Getting offended just doesn’t work in politics”.
As for leader of the “National Unity” political party Artashes Geghamyan, he had this to say:
“They have talked with Ruben and told him that they want to put up his candidacy again, but Ruben refused, claiming that he was not accepted among the majority of the MPs at the National Assembly.”
The “National Unity” party did as Ruben said and, according to Artashes Geghamyan, “we don’t think it is right to nominate someone just for fun.”
So, it appears that Armen Harutyunyan will be the only candidate for ombudsman and he will no longer announce from the National Assembly podium that the MPs that doubt him will not vote for him. He will remember his loss yesterday and how he escaped the National Assembly hall after hearing the results.