The National Assembly has already validated the decisions made on electing the heads of the constant committees on defense, national security and internal affairs, as well as the committee on social, health and ecological issues. These positions had remained empty after the resignations of the Rule of Law MPs. This issue and the election of Tigran Torosyan as the second National Assembly chairman were the most talked about topics at the National Assembly this past week.
During the last coalitional meeting, it was decided to elect MP of the National Assembly ARF faction Aramayis Grigoryan as head of the constant committee on defense, national security and internal affairs, while member of the United Labor Party (ULP), Mnatsakan Petrosyan, was elected head of the social, health and ecological issues constant committee. Leader of the ULP faction, Gurgen Arsenyan, had already agreed to take the executive position, which the Rule of Law party had left behind. That’s exactly what happened. The elections of the two heads of the constant committees went based on the planned-out scenario and nothing really interesting happened during the one-hour voting period. Only MP of the Armenian Republican faction Sukias Avetisyan, with his melancholic face, kept on going up to the head of the electoral committee, Republican Gagik Melikyan with the purpose of finding out which member of the Republican faction hadn’t shown up at the elections. Then, he took that list of “deserters” to head of the faction Galust Sahakyan, who made some phone calls and quickly arrested them. From time to time, he used to check up on whether they were arrested or not as he had ordered.
“How are the elections going?” I asked head of the electoral committee Gagik Melikyan.
“Free, fair and, most importantly, transparent,” he said.
During the entire election period, Melikyan was standing in the middle of the two ballot boxes to make sure that no MP violated the warning given.
Whereas the voting process was melancholic, the nomination of the head of the constant committee on defense, national security and internal affairs was rather diverting. Head of the ARF faction Hrair Karapetyan nominated Aramayis Grigoryan, while independent MP Hmayak Hovhannisyan nominated former head of the committee and vice president of Rule of Law Mher Shahgeldyan, who had resigned from that position a couple of days ago. Secretary of the “Justice” alliance Victor Dallakyan nominated Hmayak Hovhannisyan. However, Hmayak Hovhannisyan objected the nomination and reasoned that he is an independent MP and has no political party backing him up. He added that if that’s the way it is, he would nominate Victor Dallakyan. But chairman of the National Assembly Tigran Torosyan didn’t agree with that proposal and said that each MP has the right to nominate one candidate.
“I think we should get a little serious,” said the newly elected chairman.
After that, he got into a debate with Hmayak Hovhannisyan. Tigran Torosyan was simply against nominating Mher Shahgeldyan.
“The Rule of Law refused to take part in the constant committee presidential elections. The National Assembly praises the work done by Mher Shahgeldyan, but it’s simple logic: when people announce that they are not going to participate in the elections, we must respect their decision and not nominate them because they are not taking part. It’s obvious that they are against their nominations. This is simple logic. That’s why we have one and only one candidate,” said Torosyan.
Hmayak Hovhannisyan was trying to explain to Torosyan that he was violating the National Assembly regulations and that Torosyan doesn’t have the right to make decisions on behalf of Mher Shahgeldyan.
“I call on everyone to respect the laws stated in the Armenian Constitution, where it is stated that the MP doesn’t depend on his imperative mandate and goes along with his self-consciousness. Mher Shahgeldyan didn’t object to anything and his name must be included in the ballots. The elections will take on an alternative role and thus help keep the image of the parliament alive,” said H. Hovhannisyan as he contradicted Torosyan.
Finally, the National Assembly came up with a suitable variant: T. Torosyan suggested asking Mher Shahgeldyan’s opinion through the means of his secretary or invite him to the hall if he is in the parliament building. The Rule of Law party MPs were not at the National Assembly that day because, as former leader of the Rule of Law faction Arthur Baghdasaryan had announced, they don’t believe it would be right for them to participate in the constant committee presidential elections. Seconds later, Tigran Torosyan announced that Mher Shahgeldyan had objected the nomination and that former head of the constant committee on social, health and ecological issues Gagik Mkheyan had asked not to nominate him, otherwise he would be forced to object too. What remained a mystery was how Mher Shahgeldyan found out about his nomination and made it in time to object. When I asked National Assembly chairman Tigran Torosyan about that, he said:
“What difference does it make? When I say that Mher Shahgeldyan, has objected, then he has objected.”
However, Tigran Torosyan is not really to blame because the National Assembly charter doesn’t really state how the nominee can objectify-either through a phone call, written or personally at the hall. This loop-hole in the law served as a good opportunity to know about Mher Shahgeldyan’s wish to objectify through a phone call with his secretary.
After all this, Victor Dallakyan announced that from the way he looks at it, Armenia is still living in the times of Brezhnev.
“You get the impression that Armenia is not living in the year 2006, but rather in the 1970s when everything was decided beforehand-one candidate, one person, etc. It’s very bad to live in that era, my fellow colleagues and it may turn pathetic in some cases,” said Victor Dallakyan that day and during the two elections of the constant committee heads.
In contrast to the nominations for the head of the constant committee on defense, national security and internal affairs, the nominations for head of the social, health and ecological issues constant committee were different. MP of the ULP faction, Grigor Donjeyan nominated his party member and friend and vice-president of the same committee Mnatsakan Petrosyan. After this, I asked National Assembly chairman Tigran Torosyan whether he was worried over the fact that the elections don’t give voters the chance to vote for an alternative candidate.
“Of course I’m not worried. We have the presidential and parliamentary elections, and we have the inter-parliamentary elections. You have to differentiate between the two. It is nice to see MPs express their opinions during inter-parliamentary hearings. The opinions are expressed during the discussion, not like the presidential elections where there is no such thing as discussing beforehand,” said T. Torosyan.
So, with 71 votes in favor and one against, Mnatsakan Petrosyan was elected head of the National Assembly’s constant committee on social, health and ecological issues, while Aramayis Grigoryan was elected head of the constant committee on defense, national security and internal affairs by 70 votes in favor and one vote against. It is worth mentioning that 72 MPs had cast their votes. As to what happened to the one remaining ballot for head of the defense, national security and internal affairs committee vote, that remained a mystery.
P.S. Before the election, one of the Republican MPs asked Galust Sahakyan if they had to show the ballot before placing it in the box.
“Be quiet, there’s a journalist standing next to you,” said G. Sahakyan as he pointed to me.