The coalition parties have proposed a draft to the parliament aimed at increasing the role of the parliamentary opposition.
According to the draft law, the opposition shall have a priority right to ask questions during the Q/A session with the government. According to another provision the opposition faction shall be entitled to develop one extraordinary bill during each second quarter of each consecutive session. The draft law also clarifies the definition of the opposition. “A faction is considered as oppositional when till adoption of the program of the newly formed government by the parliament the head or secretary of the faction is coming up with an announcement certifying that they represent the opposition and no members of their party are included in the newly formed government. If any member of a party or bloc of parties which has established the mentioned faction is included in the government, the given faction shall not be considered as oppositional.” The oppositionists of this draft law say that according to this law the opposition may be deprived of its right provided by the same law before. For example, if any opposition bloc is represented in the parliament, the government may appoint someone from a party of that bloc in a state position and thus deprive the right of the mention opposition bloc to be represented in the parliament as opposition. The opposition has the right to be elected in positions of faction heads or secretaries under this law. This means that at the beginning they may let the opposition have representatives in the parliamentary faction head positions, and then by giving a state position to someone from their team take a better position such as a faction head’s position from the opposition. The other important change proposed in this draft concerns the priority right to propose an extraordinary issue and organize discussion. However, this issue may be interpreted dually as well. The law sets forth the scope of issues which are not subject to extraordinary discussion: “An opposition faction cannot consider issues concerning constitutional amendments and referendum as extraordinary,” writes the draft law on amendment to the NA bylaws. By the way, if the law enters into force within ten days after its adoption, the last provision on suggesting extraordinary discussion of issues will enter into force only after the elections of the parliament of next convocation. Also, according to this draft law the faction members who vote against the conclusion of standing commissions are given an opportunity to express their opinions in a separate speech. In addition, during the Q/A session with the government the opposition MPs are given a priority right to ask questions to the government first. The draft law is in circulation now but it hasn’t been included in the NA agenda yet. RPA member davit Harutyunyan, LS member Heghine Bisharyan, PA leader Gagik Tsarukyan and ARF member Armen Rustamyan have signed under the bill. “It contains more specific and guarantied mechanisms for the opposition to act more effectively, specifically the opposition will be given a priority right to ask questions to the government and also suggests new mechanisms of forming the head positions of standing commissions,” said PA faction member Naira Zohrabyan to radio Liberty. She says this draft law will help the Armenian government to implement the requirements of the PACE resolution 1609. “Of course it is done in sake of both the PACE resolution and the principles agreed upon in the coalition agreement before that resolution, according to which better conditions should be created for the parliamentary opposition,” said N. Zohrabyan.