ArmInfo. The parliamentary opposition intends to challenge the results of the election of the Speaker of the National Assembly in the Constitutional Court.
Yesterday, the MPs of the ruling "Civil Contract" party elected Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the 7th convocation Alen Simonyan as Speaker of the parliament.
Meanwhile, the opposition candidates - former head of the Meghri community Mkhitar Zakaryan (nominated by the "Hayastan" faction) and former head of the Sisian community Artur Sargsyan (the candidate from the "I Have Honor") were not given the opportunity established by the NA Rules of Procedure to speak before parliamentarians, since Zakaryan and Sargsyan, despite their parliamentary mandates and, accordingly, parliamentary immunity, are under arrest. As the lawyer, now the MP from "Hayastan" faction Aram Vardevanyan, stated, the immunity of the MP can be overcome only with the consent of the National Assembly of Armenia. Proceeding from this, in his words, the process of electing the Speaker of the parliament in the absence of Mkhitar Zakaryan and Artur Sargsyan cannot be legal. As a result, even before the start of voting on the election of the NA Speaker, the parliamentary opposition demonstratively left the session hall in protest against the discussion of the government's candidacy for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly in the absence of opposition candidates.
Today, prior to the start of nominating candidates for the post of Deputy Speakers, MP of "Hayastan" faction Artsvik Minasyan said that they would appeal to the Constitutional Court to recognize the results of yesterday's elections as unconstitutional. In addition, the opposition will seek to prove the illegality of the deprivation of freedom, despite the immunity. In turn, MP of "Hayastan" faction Aram Vardevanyan stated that the voting was carried out with significant violations due to an error in the ballots (because of a typo in the name of one of the opposition candidates, they had to go to the second vote, Ed. note).