Though Bill was Defeated, Dashnak MP was Glad Voting Passed Without Incident

Head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) parliamentary faction Vahan Hovhannesyan (widely spelled as Hovhannisyan) welcomes the fact that though the voting system for the parliamentary elections will remain unchanged, the vote passed without incident.

“A noteworthy phenomenon was observed, since several lawmakers elected on the party-list basis [the majority system] even voted for the move to proportional representation,” he said.

Note, out of 131 parliamentary seats, 41 are elected by majority ballot and 90 by party-list proportional representation. In Armenia, citizens vote for individual candidates on the majority ballot, but vote for political parties on the proportional ballot. The bill to move to 100% proportional representation in parliament, put to a vote by the parliamentary opposition (Heritage Party and ARF-D), was defeated as only 30 lawmakers voted in favor, while 56 voted against and 4 abstained.

According to Hovhannesyan, those same lawmakers spoke prudently in parliament and were not blindly “obedient”.

However, according to the MP, this isn’t enough, since to have a “normal” National Assembly we need to have “normal” elections.

Responding to criticism by Republican Party of Armenia MP Manvel Badeyan, who said he didn’t appreciate being monitored during the voting of the bill on emergency rule in parliament yesterday, Hovhannesyan, saying he will respond in the same tone, retorted, “What, are you better boys than us that you can vote twice, but we can only vote once?” Note, the ARF-D lawmaker was referring to Heritage Party and ARF-D MPs monitoring the voting process yesterday so that lawmakers (most notably, those representing the Republican Party of Armenia) wouldn’t vote in place of their absent colleagues — a move caught on camera when the bill passed its first reading in parliament.

Recall, the bill regulating the introduction and enforcement of a state of emergency was already adopted by the National Assembly in the first reading less than a month ago. As RFE/RL’s Armenian service reported, the government withdrew and modified it after being accused of preparing ground for future use of the armed forces against political dissent.

The changes made in the adopted text are meant to address the opposition criticism. In particular, they stipulate that only those army units that underwent “special training” can be used by the authorities. Their main function will be to protect government buildings and other strategic facilities, rather than break up street protests.

Under the law, the president of the republic can turn to the military for help if police and other security forces are unable to enforce emergency rule. In that case, military personnel will be allowed to use riot equipment and live ammunition in accordance with an Armenian law on the police.