ELECTORAL MOODS IN THE NA

The parliamentarians speak of the forthcoming elections more than of discussing important laws.

Yesterday the parliament discussed by the first reading the draft on “Formation and resignation of the government”, the adoption of which is dictated by constitutional amendments. Maximum 10 parliamentarians were present in the hall of sittings as usual. The part of them was from ULP faction. And just Gurgen Arsenian, the head of ULP faction, found out the “underground stream” of that law, that is the government has removed that sentence from the text of the law\’s draft, according to which the citizen of other country can\’t be a member of government. “It\’s a question of principle for me whether the citizen of other country may become the RA Minister. It is inadmissible for me,”- Mr. Arsenian declared. In his opinion the mechanism of the formation of government adopted by the Constitution has been ignored. According to the draft “The RA President forms the government, in case of the government\’s resignation, after appointing Prime Minister in 20 days”. While according to the constitutional amendments, the president appoints the prime minister based on the parliamentary seats and consultations with parliamentary factions.
NA chairman Tigran Torosian made a special speech and declared that a careless attitude had been demonstrated towards the draft of law. He also mentioned that reading that draft he might get an impression that the Constitution hasn\’t been reformed. According to Tigran Torosian, in case of refusing this draft there will be problems after parliamentary elections during formation of the government. So that draft “with a lot of omissions” should be adopted and to design completely before second reading.
NA discussed two important drafts yesterday, too: “RA Court Code” and the law “On Prosecutor\’s office”, which are included in the second stage of judicial-legal reforms. But discussions of these drafts were also made in the almost empty hall. Instead, the parliament became crowded when the time of announcements came. Twenty-five parliamentarians had an opportunity to send message to their voters free of charge.
The majority of announcements may be divided into 2 groups: the pro-authority representatives were assuring that their intentions to hold fair elections were fair. The oppositionists were crying, we don\’t believe. “The representatives of the authority have always assured that the elections will be just and fair, but they have always rigged”, – “National Unity” member Gagik Kostandian noticed.
Victor Dallakian declared: “It\’s amusing when the representatives of those political forces speak of free and fair elections who contra-indicated to speak of it, as in case of holding such elections, they may find themselves in the jail.” RPA faction member Armen Ashotian opposed him that everybody had a right to speak as the freedom of speech was guaranteed by the Constitution. “If you are sure that the authorities have no right to speak of such elections, why do you feel nervous? Let the authorities speak, and the people will see a great difference between speech and action, and won\’t believe in the authorities any more”.
“National Unity” member Aghasy Arshakian declared: “If we allow they will rig. They aren\’t idiots, are they?” RPA council member Samvel Nikoyan opposed him: “It\’s idiotism to say that you won\’t allow the elections to be rigged on the one hand, and to say that the elections will be rigged on the other hand”.
RPA faction leader Galust Sahakian made an announcement yesterday. He said that curses, accusations and offences have been increased and warned: “If they curse, the fists are increased. We\’ll wait a little and will answer during the campaign and the answer will be very strong”. DPA leader Aram Sargsian replied to it: “We have no problem”.