Secret Ballot for Parliamentary Committee Chairs underway in  Armenia`s National Assembly

ArmInfo.  A secret ballot to elect the chairs of parliamentary committees  started in  the National Assembly on August 20.

There are 12 such committees in total. Candidates have been nominated  across political groups: 8 by the ruling "Civil Contract" faction, 3  by the opposition "Strong Armenia" faction, and 1 by another  opposition force, the "Armenia" bloc. Candidates are nominated  following the principle of proportional distribution (the D'Hondt  method), under which leadership positions in the committees are  allocated between the ruling majority and the opposition based on the  number of mandates won. The voting will last for two hours.

Speaking to journalists, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Vahagn  Aleksanyan stated that after the vote on the candidates for standing  committee chairs, the parliamentary majority will present its stance  regarding the choices made. "There is a significant portion of  citizens asking us not to support opposition candidates, and there is  a segment of the opposition electorate demanding that we do support  them.  Clarifications must be provided to citizens in this regard,"  he noted.