The National Assembly of Armenia approved the Government program at the extraordinary sitting on October 21. The document was passed with 87 for, 4 against and 4 abstained votes of the deputies.
“Congratulations to our Cabinet,” Speaker of the National Assembly Galust Sahakyan said after the vote was announced.
To note, the parliamentary fraction of the Prosperous Armenia Party declared their party members would not participate in the voting, while The Rule of Law Party abstained from the voting.
Before the program was submitted to vote, opposition lawmaker Alexander Arzumanyan made a speech, suggesting the Government program may change nothing significant. Arzumanyan referred to previous programs.
Read also
“People at this hall are entering a pre-election phase, and the temptation to come up with political speeches is great. I would refrain from running into extremes through either calling the program as a salvation plan or express pessimism over the possibility to change something in this situation. We realize that the society may not be deprived of the hope your appointment brought to them. We have no reason to doubt the decency of the ministers appointed by you. That is why I do not want to start with negative signals, however I can not also support the program fully unless I see concrete real steps,” Arzumanyan stated.
The leader of the ANC Parliamentary fraction Levon Zurabyan on his part stated their party would not approve any cabinet formed by the ruling party, evidencing the previous experience.
“We consider the Government program as a vote of confidence and we express our distrust through voting against,” Zurabyan said.