Issue of ratification of the 'gas agreements' must be submitted to the Constitutional Court, as the vote counting commission had no right to announce the voting result, says Tigran Urikhanyan, MP, Spokesperson of Prosperous Armenia Party.
"On 23 December, the vote counting commission did not adopt the decision collectively, which is a violation of the parliament regulations. Consequently, the decision must be disputed," the parliamentarian told reporters, Tuesday.
Urikhanuyan does not think that the Monday protests by journalists in the parliament were unlawful.
"This is a matter of political preferences. There are journalists that prefer taking a neutral stance, while others support the public views. I see nothing unlawful here," he said.
At the Dec 23 extraordinary meeting, the Armenian Parliament ratified the Armenian-Russian agreement on the terms of the purchase-sale of ArmRusgasprom's shares and the company's further activities. 77 MPs voted pro, with no votes contra and no one abstained. The parliamentary opposition tried to boycott the voting. Four opposition parties, Armenian National Congress (ANC), Heritage, ARFD and Prosperous Armenia, declared they would appeal to the Constitution Court against the results of the voting on the Armenian-Russian gas agreement. They claim that the voting was invalid because 4 out of the 7 members of the ballot committee were absent.
David Harutyunyan, Head of the Armenian Standing Parliamentary Commission for State and Legal Affairs, MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told media on Monday that the opposition parties' initiative to apply to the Constitutional Court is ungrounded in terms of content and legislation. Harutyunyan added that unlike laws, ratification of international agreements can be disputed at the Constitutional Court only in case of the violations fixed in the Constitution. "But in this case the issue raised by the opposition concerns application to the Constitutional Court on the basis of the Law on the National Assembly Regulations. This is wrong", he said.