Tuesday,
Pashinian’s Party Falls Short Of Two-Thirds Majority In New Parliament
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Former Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and senior members of his Civil
Contract Party celebrate their election victory at a rally in Yerevan, June 21,
2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Civil Contract party fell just short of
winning a two-thirds majority in Armenia’s new parliament, the Central Election
Commission (CEC) confirmed on Tuesday.
According to the final results of the June 20 elections released by the CEC on
Sunday, Civil Contract garnered about 54 percent of the vote. Two opposition
alliances led by former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian trailed
it with 21 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.
The ruling party will control a significantly larger proportion of seats in the
National Assembly thanks to the two dozen other election contenders that failed
to clear the legal vote thresholds to enter the parliament. The latter will not
be represented in the legislature despite polling a combined 20 percent of the
vote.
The CEC used a complex formula set by Armenian law to distribute the 107 seats
in the new parliament. Civil Contract will have 71 seats, with the remaining 36
seats given to the two opposition forces. Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc will control
29 of them.
The CEC chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, confirmed that Pashinian’s party will be one
vote short of the two-thirds parliamentary majority required for amending the
Armenian constitution, calling a referendum or impeaching the largely ceremonial
president of the republic.
Pashinian and his political allies have enjoyed such a majority in the outgoing
Armenian parliament elected in 2018.
The formula used for calculating the distribution of parliament seats includes a
requirement that the opposition minority must control at least one-third of the
National Assembly. The odd total number of the new parliament’s seats means that
Pashinian’s party will get just under two-thirds of the seats.
Vladimir Vartanian, a senior member of the outgoing parliament representing
Civil Contract, complained about this fact, saying that the existing legal
mechanism is flawed. Vartanian did not rule out the possibility of challenging
it in the Constitutional Court.
“I believe that a purely mathematical approach to this matter is not the best
one,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Vartanian stressed at the same time that Pashinian’s political team will remain
in a position to enact major laws that are defined as “constitutional bills” and
need to be backed by at least 60 percent of the lawmakers.
The opposition minority could block or at least delay their entry into force by
asking the Constitutional Court to examine their conformity with the Armenian
constitution.
Kocharian said later on Tuesday that his bloc will have enough parliament seats
to hold Pashinian’s administration in check and “achieve some of our goals.”
Armenia To Join EU’s Common Aviation Area
Armenia - Marshallers guide a plane that landed at Zvartnots international
airport, Yerevan, January 15, 2021.
The European Union announced on Tuesday that it will sign with the Armenian
government later this year a deal that will further facilitate commercial
flights between the EU and Armenia.
The EU said its decision-making Council approved separate draft agreements with
Armenia, Ukraine and Tunisia allowing the three countries to join the European
Common Aviation Area, a single market for aviation services.
“The three neighborhood agreements will remove market restrictions in relation
to the EU’s neighboring countries and associate these countries with the EU’s
internal aviation market, as they will adopt EU aviation standards and implement
EU aviation rules,” it said in a statement.
This will create “new opportunities” for airlines and travellers and “promote
trade, tourism, investment and economic and social development,” said the
statement.
The Council also gave the green light to the signing of a similar deal with
Qatar.
“The four agreements are expected to be signed in autumn 2021,” the EU said,
adding that they will have to be ratified by all of the bloc’s 27 member states.
Armenia and the EU officially started negotiations on a Common Aviation Area
agreement in April 2017. The EU Delegation in Yerevan said at the time that it
will enable airlines to operate Armenia-EU routes “without any limitations.”
Armenia’s former government lifted virtually all restrictions for European and
other foreign carriers in 2013 when it liberalized the domestic aviation market.
The South Caucasus country’s air traffic with the outside world grew rapidly in
the following years, with more flight services launched between Yerevan and
European cities.
The current Armenian government managed to attract two low-cost European
airlines in 2019. One of them, Ryanair launched flights to and from Yerevan in
January 2020 while the other, Wizz Air, was due to follow suit in April 2020.
However, the coronavirus pandemic forced both carriers to cancel the new flight
services.
In June 2020, the EU banned all seven airlines registered in Armenia from
carrying out regular flights to EU member states, saying that they do not meet
international safety standards.
Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee downplayed the ban, arguing that only one
local airline currently flies to Europe. At the same time the government agency
pledged to take serious measures to address the EU concerns about flight safety.
Armenian Governor Denies Political Sackings
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Shirak Governor Hovhannes Harutiunian.
The governor of Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province has denied allegations
that he fired the directors of two local schools and a policlinic because they
supported the main opposition Hayastan alliance in this month’s parliamentary
elections.
All three officials were sacked by the governor, Hovannes Harutiunian, in the
run-up to the June 20 elections won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party.
Both school principals said over the weekend that they have challenged
Harutiunian’s decisions in court. Arpine Nikoghosian, who ran the provincial
capital Gyumri’s School No. 38, claimed that she was fired because of being
affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
Dashnaktsutyun is a key member of the opposition Hayastan bloc led by former
President Robert Kocharian. The bloc finished second in the elections, according
to their official results.
Also dismissed were Karine Ghazarian, the principal of a school in the Shirak
village of Geghanist, and Ayvaz Sukiasian, who managed Gyumri’s state Policlinic
No. 1. They both declined to comment on their sackings. Ghazarian said only that
she has asked a local court to annul her dismissal.
Hovannes Asoyan, a Hayastan leader in Shirak, insisted that the three officials
lost their jobs as a result of ongoing “political persecution” of the opposition
group’s local activists and well-known supporters.
Harutiunian, who is affiliated with the ruling party, denied that the sackings
were politically motivated.
“As regards dismissals and hiring of people, it’s a natural working process that
cannot be linked to political processes,” the Shirak governor told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Still, he did not clearly explain why he fired the two school principals and the
policlinic chief.
During the 12-day election campaign Pashinian pledged to “purge” the state
bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local government officials
supporting the opposition. Shortly after the announcement of the election
results, his chief of staff, Arsen Torosian, effectively demanded that elected
heads of local communities supporting the opposition step down.
Visiting Gyumri on June 23, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian said Pashinian’s
administration is planning a “systemic vetting” of state officials.
Armenian media outlets reported in the following days that several provincial
governors are summoning pro-opposition village mayors and pressuring them to
resign.
One of those mayors claimed to have been beaten up inside the Lori provincial
administration building moments after refusing to quit. Although the Lori
governor, Aram Khachatrian, denied the assault, law-enforcement authorities
launched a criminal investigation.
The Hayastan leadership issued a statement last week condemning the pressure
allegedly exerted on the local government officials as illegal.
Biden Congratulates Armenians On ‘Successful’ Elections
U.S. - US President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on
April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC, about the withdrawal of the remainder of US
troops from Afghanistan.
U.S. President Joe Biden commended Armenia on Tuesday for holding what he
described as “successful” parliamentary elections on June 20.
“Congratulations to the people of Armenia and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on
successful parliamentary elections,” tweeted Biden.
“Our partnership with Armenia is one of shared values and cooperation on
democratic reform and conflict resolution -- we are committed to strengthening
that partnership,” he said.
The U.S. State Department issued a similar statement the day after the snap
elections, which were called to end a serious political crisis caused by
Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
A department spokesman noted and welcomed a largely positive assessment of the
Armenian authorities’ handling of the vote given by European observers. He also
urged the Armenian opposition to accept the official election results that gave
victory to Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
The two main opposition groups continued to reject the official results as
fraudulent, however. They both are expected to ask the country’s Constitutional
Court to overturn them.
Former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc, the official runner-up in the
polls, has accused the European observers of turning a blind eye to violations
which it said benefited the ruling party.
Pashinian insisted on June 24 that the vote was free and fair. “We set a new
standard,” he said.
Pashinian’s office was quick to post Biden’s tweet on its website. It did not
say whether the U.S. president has sent a formal congratulatory message to the
Armenian premier.
Armenia’s Central Election Commission reaffirmed its vote tally on Sunday.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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