Verelq: The government was formed by violating the Constitution. Marukyan vs. Pashinyan

Edmon Marukyan, the chairman of “Lusavore Armenia” party, claims that the RA government was formed in violation of the Constitution. In this regard, he issued a statement.

“In general, the formation of the government, unlike other bodies of the RA executive power, is distinguished by its unique order of formation. The start of the formation of the government begins after the appointment of the prime minister, and then continues with the appointment of ministers.

I think that there has been a violation of the procedure for forming the government, that is, Article 150 of the RA Constitution. That article defines a clear procedure for the formation of the government, according to which, after his appointment, the Prime Minister proposes to the President of the Republic the candidates for Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers within 5 days. Naturally, here we are talking about the presentation of candidates to be appointed to the positions of members of the government in accordance with the law on the structure and operation of the current government.

The RA Prime Minister did not present all ministerial candidates, and the RA President appointed only those who were presented by the Prime Minister.

According to Article 2 of the Law on the Structure and Activities of the Government, the Government consists of the Prime Minister, the First Deputy Prime Minister, two Deputy Prime Ministers and ministers.

The structure of the government includes the following ministries:

1) Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
2) the Ministry of Health,
3) Ministry of Justice,
4) the Ministry of Emergency Situations,
5) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
6) the Ministry of Environmental Protection
7) Ministry of Agriculture,
8) Ministry of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources,
9) Ministry of Education and Science,
10) the Ministry of Culture,
11) Ministry of Defense,
12) Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs,
13) Ministry of Diaspora
14) the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development,
15) Ministry of Economic Development and Investments,
16) the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies,
17) Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of RA presented the candidacy of 2 Deputy Prime Ministers and 12 Ministers. In other words, the nomination of five ministers was not submitted, leaving the existing ministries without ministers. However, those ministries and ministerial positions are defined by the above-mentioned law, which is an active law and there is no other law that would define otherwise. At the moment, there is not even any legislative change initiative regarding the structure and activity of the Government. 
It can only be assumed that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia was misled by his advisers on legal issues, due to which he was guided by Article 3, Part 9 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the Structure and Activities of the Government”, which defines the guarantee that should ensure the normal functioning of the government.

According to the quoted provision of the above article, the government is considered constituted if at least 2/3 of the members of the government have been appointed. This provision regulates a completely different relationship, it has nothing to do with the constitutional obligation to present the composition of the Government to the President of the Republic of Armenia. It exclusively refers to the cases when the President of the Republic of Armenia appealed to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia on the issue of contesting the ministerial candidates proposed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. And the Constitutional Court did not see a problem with at least 2/3 of the candidates. And the other candidates were considered incompatible for those positions, or their candidacy is still under discussion.

This provision is exclusively a provision establishing a guarantee, the meaning of which is to ensure the normal operation of the government in order to avoid a constitutional crisis, and not to grant the RA Prime Minister the right to present fewer ministerial candidates from the government within a five-day period.

Based on the above, it should be stated that the RA Prime Minister did not fulfill the direct obligation imposed on him by the RA Constitution, due to which the requirement of Article 150 of the RA Constitution was violated. 

I urge the Prime Minister to first get rid of those advisers who interpreted the solution of the problem in such a way. As well as to immediately submit to the National Assembly a draft law on the structure and operation of the Government, which will present the structure of the new government, will not leave ministries without ministers in the air and will include the NSS, the police and the SRC in its structure,” said Marukyan’s statement.