ArmInfo.Today's decision of the Constitutional Court of Armenia does not provide for the dissolution of the Vanadzor Council of Elders. This was stated in the conversation with the correspondent of ArmInfo by the mayor of Vanadzor, Mamikon Aslanyan.
According to him, the Constitutional Court rejected precisely that part of the claim of the opposition blocs "Elk" and "Tsarukyan", which concerned the dissolution of the Council of Elders. "Representatives of these forces, among others, challenged the constitutionality of Article 69 of the law on local self-government, and if the Constitutional Court granted their claim on this part, then indeed, the meetings of the Vanadzor Council of Elders could be considered unconstitutional, but the Constitutional Court considered the relevant Basic Law of the country the 69th article of the law on local self-government, therefore, confirmed the constitutionality of the meetings of the Council of Elders of Vanadzor," Aslanyan explained.
He noted that the Constitutional Court recognized as anticonstitutional only the 30th article of the law on local self-government and those decisions of the Vanadzor Council of Elders, which proceed from this provision. "The CC gave the time for the parliament to bring this provision of the law into line with the Constitution, and we, in order to review our decisions, we will definitely implement the decision of the Constitutional Court," stressed Aksnanyan, again emphasizing that the decision of the Constitutional Court does not provide for the dissolution of the Vanadzor Council of Elders, hence, the question of his resignation disappears.
Today the Constitutional Court of Armenia passed a verdict on the suit of the "Elk" and "Tsarukyan" blocs regarding the constitutionality of the meetings of the Vanadzor Council of Elders. According to the verdict of the Constitutional Court, decisions N 2-H, 7-H, 8-H, 9-H adopted at the first meeting of the Vanadzor Council of Elders of March 31, 2017 are unconstitutional. Also, the Constitutional Court found the 30th article of the law on territorial administration inadequate to the basic law of the country. Meanwhile, the lawsuit contained several other articles as well. That is, the Constitutional Court partially satisfied the lawsuit of the blocs. This verdict of the Constitutional Court comes into force on March 31st. Meanwhile, in a conversation with journalists, member of the Elk bloc Edmond Marukyan noted that this verdict of the Constitutional Court confirms the fact that all the meetings of the Vanadzor Elders Council, starting from the very first, were unconstitutional. Therefore, he stressed, the Council of Elders of Vanadzor should be dissolved and new elections should be appointed. Recall that in the elections to the Council of Elders of Vanadzor, the ruling Republican Party failed to win a majority, receiving 15 seats out of 33 However, during the secret, closed ballot in the mayoral elections of Vanadzor, three opposition representatives violated the joint agreement of the three opposition forces "Orinats Yerkir" now "Armenian Renaissance", "Enlightened Armenia" party, now part of the "Elk" bloc and the "Prosperous Armenia" party, now part of the "Tsarukyan" editorial board) supported the RPA candidate Mamikon Aslanyan . According to reliabale information of ArmInfo, two of the three "renegades" were representatives of the "Orinats Yerkir", moreover, one of them - Arkady Pelyshyan was a candidate for mayor from this party. Nevertheless, already during the meetings of the Council of Elders of Vanadzor the "renegades" did not venture openly to oppose the decision of the political forces they represented and did not participate in the meetings. Thus, the meetings of the Council took place without securing a quorum, that is, decisions were taken by a minority of votes. It was the unconstitutionality of this fact that the representatives of the Elk and Tsarukyan blocs tried to prove in the Constitutional Court.