Lawmaker cannot vote beforehand in case of attending someone’s wedding (video)
The discussion over the RA law on the NA Rules of Procedure was exceptional, thinks Hovhannes Sahakyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs. To remind, the law was adopted at the first reading with 93 votes. The Republican lawmaker noted that in the law on the NA Rules of Procedure there are several new provisions, one of which is the regulation on the Investigative Committee. “It will be the main tool in hands of the NA minority, so that it can give assessment to different issues. Every issue will be solved by consensus.” Mr Sahakyan claims that when the opposition wants to organize a discussion on certain topic, it is unable to collect the necessary number of signatures and fails. “The new regulation eases the rule. The opposition will be able to more easily take the discussion of the concerning issues to the National Assembly, but the discussion will be public.” According to the proposed law, lawmakers can vote, knowing beforehand what law will be put to vote. It is applicable only in case of business trips and mandatory absences conditioned by obligations. “If the lawmaker is absent for participating in someone’s wedding, it does not relate to this provision and the lawmaker cannot vote beforehand.” The issue of a lawmaker’s status after leaving a faction is also problematic. The members of the opposition claim that by this the authorities want to enter other factions and weaken them. “On the contrary, we want to strengthen the factions. Lawmakers should know that after leaving the faction, they will become semi-lawmakers and cannot be included in the NA Committees,” he added.
