ArmInfo. The MPs from the ruling "Civil Contract" did not elect the speaker of parliament, due to a typo in the name of one of the opposition candidates. The name of the candidate was never announced.
At the moment, a second secret ballot is being held in the National Assembly to elect the Speaker of the of the Parliament of the 8th convocation. It will last 30 minutes.
The ruling majority also came up with an initiative to hold an additional meeting today from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.
Earlier, the parliamentary forces nominated their candidates for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly: the parliamentary majority - the Civil Contract faction nominated the deputy speaker of the 7th convocation parliament Alen Simonyan, the Hayastan opposition faction nominated the former head of the Meghri community Mkhitar Zakaryan, and the opposition ' I Have the Honor "- the former head of the Sisian community, Artur Sargsyan. Zakaryan and Sargsyan, despite their parliamentary mandates and, accordingly, parliamentary immunity, are under arrest. As the lawyer, now the lawmaker from "Hayastan" Aram Vardevanian, stated, the immunity of the lawmaker can be overcome only with the consent of the National Assembly of Armenia. At the same time, as the MP pointed out, the process of electing the Speaker of the Parliament in the absence of Mkhitar Zakaryan and Artur Sargsyan cannot be legal, since the NA regulations oblige to ensure the presence of candidates so that the latter can present their program to parliamentarians.
As a result, even before the start of voting on the election of the NA Speaker, the parliamentary opposition - the Hayastan bloc and the I Have Honor Alliance - demonstratively left the session hall in protest against the discussion of the government's candidacy for the Speaker of the National Assembly in the absence of opposition candidates.