Downsize: Change To Parliamentary System Would Reduce Number Of MPs

DOWNSIZE: CHANGE TO PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM WOULD REDUCE NUMBER OF MPS

POLITICS | 20.03.15 | 15:26

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

If a referendum passes in favor of changing Armenia’s government to
a parliamentary system, the number of Parliament Members would likely
be reduced from its present 131, to 75.

“If there is a change, it must be a certain visible quantitative
change, or everything must be left the same,” Vahram Baghdasaryan,
Republican Party of Armenia executive member told reporters,
adding that he is inclined to the option with fewer MPs and a more
professional parliament. “We are discussing such questions, we will
definitely introduce this one as well.”

Armenia was a country with a parliamentary system of administration
still in 1918, during its short-lived first republic. It had four
political parties, and in the first parliament convocation there were
46, and in the second – 80 MPs.

And in 1920, after Soviet order was established, the highest official
body of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was the Supreme Council,
it was elected for a five-year period, had one chamber and was made
up of 340 MPs, and these were elected among electoral constituencies
with equal number of population.

At the threshold of independence the first convocation of the Supreme
Council of Armenia in 1990 was formed by a majoritarian system and
had 260 MPs.

After independence and passing on to presidential system on July 5,
1995, the first Armenian convocation of National Assembly elections
took place, during which 190 MPs were elected: 150 – by a majoritarian
system and 40 – by proportional.

In 1999, the number of MPs was reduced to 131 – a number that coincides
with the number of Armenian patriarchs.

It has often been debated whether a country of less than three million,
such as Armenia, needs so many legislators. In countries of similar
size – Latvia, Moldova, Estonia – the number of parliamentarians
is 100.

According to political analyst Stepan Grigoryan, in Armenia as well,
the number of MPs must be decreased to at least 100.

“In any country, there can be no fewer than 100 MPs in a Parliament,
because the political fight is a cruel thing, political processes get
very grave and if a political team is very small, it means it would be
very easy to press them,” the political analyst told ArmeniaNow. He
added that a parliament system includes factions, and if the number
of the MPs is 74, for instance in that parliament there can be no
more than three factions, while the parliament is a multi-party body
and the goal is that different parties are introduced in it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress