PROPOSAL ON PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ELECTORAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION REJECTED
Lragir/am
20 March 06
On March 20 the National Assembly confirmed the agenda of the March
20-23 meeting of the National Assembly and rejected the proposal of
setting up a provisional committee to investigate electoral fraud
during the constitutional referendum. Victor Dallakyan, the author
of this initiative, thinks that this committee is necessary for the
prevention of electoral fraud, as well as the fulfillment of the
stipulations of the Council of Europe. After the referendum the PACE
observers proposed to set up a committee to investigate irregularities
and give a political evaluation.
The Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs gave a negative
conclusion for Victor Dallakyan’s initiative. The minister of justice
Davit Harutiunyan said the stance of the government is definite:
there is no need to set up such a committee, since not all the state
institutions have been applied. Davit Harutiunyan means that the
opposition, for instance, have not appealed to the Constitutional
Court over electoral fraud.
During the March 20 meeting of the National Assembly Victor Dallakyan
announced that the government does not have the right to evaluate the
initiatives of lawmakers. “It is an interference with the internal
affairs of the National Assembly,” says Victor Dallakyan. The member
of parliament pointed out the importance of setting up a committee to
investigate the electoral fraud, hear the corresponding report of the
Public Prosecutor and give a political evaluation of the referendum.
The Speaker of the National Assembly Arthur Baghdasaryan said
investigation of electoral fraud is the responsibility of the law
enforcement agencies and they have to deal with it. Arthur Baghdasaryan
said the political evaluations have been voiced and all the political
forces have already expressed their opinion on the referendum. The
speaker of the parliament put to vote the question of including the
bill on a provisional committee on electoral fraud in the agenda.
Twenty MPs of the alliance Ardarutiun and National Unity voted for the
initiative of the opposition. Nobody voted against the proposal of the
opposition to set up a committee, but no one voted for the bill except
for the opposition either. Of the majority only the Orinats Yerkir and
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation voted. Both political parties
of the coalition abstained. The Republicans did not vote at all. The
United Labor Party and the People’s Deputy did not vote either.
MP Hmayak Hovanisyan assessed the behavior of the Republicans as
boycott.
And Victor Dallakyan, the author of the proposal, announced that by
voting down the initiative the parliamentary majority confirmed that
they had been involved in the electoral fraud.