“What were the accomplishments and mishaps of the third National Assembly and what are your expectations for the fourth parliament? “168 Hours” asked this question to a group of National Assembly deputies.
Ruben Hovsepyan (National Assembly Deputy, Armenian Revolutionary Federation faction):
“Many laws of great significance for Armenia’s development were formulated and approved during the third National Assembly. The mishaps showed up during law enforcement and those laws were then reformed and supplemented. Armenia does not have a history of 100 or 200 years to have approved all laws and moved on to solving delicate issues. We are still filling in for the legislative field. I think that this parliament fulfilled its duties. After all, the work of the parliament must be evaluated as a whole and it is not important who cursed or defamed whom. Of course it would have been better if nothing like that happened, but we evaluate work by the end-result. It is important to take into account how many laws have been approved and how many of those laws are close to being perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect law and laws are always subject to reform. I would like to state one of the most recent accomplishments of parliament which is the “Citizenship” insert in the law of Armenia, which I consider an important and historic step. Perhaps we could have done more if it weren’t for different kinds of political speculations. As for my expectations, I would not like to make evaluations because I am not going to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections.”
Grigor Ghonjeyan (National Assembly Deputy, “United Labor Party” faction):
“The third National Assembly was significant for the United Labor Party (ULP) in that the ULP had full participation. We at ULP are certain that we were not only able to participate and have an influence on the formation of the political environment, but also became a factor during the formation. The ULP was the only party with a liberalist ideology during the third National Assembly. This achievement of the National Assembly was the approval of the Constitution that in some way corresponded to the requirements. Today we can say that all fields of state construction are legally regulated and whether it is good or bad is a different story. The important thing is that the laws are approved. The biggest flaw of the third National Assembly was not using the authorizations granted to the parliament by the new Constitution for one and half years. The ULP presented a separate “National Assembly” regulatory legislature package which was first rejected and then not discussed. Then the party managed to organize an alternative discussion, but this time the ULP draft was called “Draft of the Future” and was once again rejected. We are certain that the National Assembly will pay special attention to the “National Assembly” regulatory law and the timeline of work completed during the fourth parliament. I hope that meetings will be convened every week, the parliament will play a more serious role in the formation of government programs and finally, I hope that the laws will be made to correspond to the new Constitution of Armenia.”
Aram G. Sargsyan (National Assembly Deputy, “Justice” faction):
“The majority of the deputies in the third National Assembly did not complete any practical work. They only came to press buttons during the sessions and left. The failure of this parliament started when the decision approved by the Constitutional Court to conduct a referendum of trust following the 2003 presidential elections was denied and the falsifiers remained unpunished as a result. The parliament lost its role when it tolerated that situation and did not discuss the decision made by the Constitutional Court. That sparked the boycott of the opposition against the parliament’s work and left a trace on the work of the parliament. To tell you the truth, I can’t really mention any accomplishment. Perhaps I can consider the approval and discussions of the laws as a success. However, there was no success on principal issues. For example, the insert of the dual citizenship law may cause serious problems. A lot of work was done on approving new laws and supplementing. As to how well that was done, that is a different story. The National Assembly regulatory law reforms may also be considered a success; as a result of those reforms, deputies may make announcements from the podium and ask questions to government representatives. In general, however, this parliament did not serve its purpose. As for the work of the fourth National Assembly, I don’t think that there will be an essential change if the current authorities try to make their scenarios a reality during the elections. The deputies with the “middle names” will pass in the majority electoral system, but this is not what should be taking place in the parliament. As for the proportional electoral system, if they take the voters’ votes into account, then that will be a huge step. But I am not that optimistic. The elections are going to be falsified because the forces are going to compete in unequal conditions.”
Gagik Kostandyan (National Assembly Deputy, “National Unity” faction):
“I have not seen any accomplishment during this parliament besides the approval of undemocratic laws. This parliament is a total defect. It would be a great achievement to have 20-30 deputies able to write their names without spelling errors. I grade the work of the third National Assembly as unsatisfactory. I can’t compare this National Assembly with the previous one. The second National Assembly was better and the first one was better than the second. I am certain that everything is going to be fine in the fourth National Assembly because we will not allow falsifications to take place. We are going to fight against falsifications.”
Gagik Minasyan (National Assembly Deputy, Armenian Republican Party faction):
“The biggest accomplishment of the third National Assembly was the process of constitutional reforms and the successful end with the approval of laws based on that constitution. I was expecting that we would have a taxing code during the third National Assembly that would include all tax laws. I think that the lack of a taxing code is the biggest flaw of this parliament. Usually the majority is of the opinion that the intellectual potential of the National Assembly is decreasing, however I don’t tend to think like that. The work of parliament must be evaluated based on the total result. The previous parliaments approved more laws of high-quality than this parliament. I think that the fourth National Assembly will be similar to the current one. I hope that the fourth National Assembly will work more efficiently, approve more laws and will be more flawless than the rest of the Armenian parliaments.”