We give the prodigal son the opportunity to return to parliament: authorities changed their minds about depriving opposition MPsof their mandates

ArmInfo. The ruling “Civil Contract”  faction of the Armenian Parliament changed its mind to apply to the Constitutional Court on the issue of depriving  opposition MPs of their mandates. Deputy Speaker of the Parliament  Ruben Rubinyan told journalists this on July 14 following the meeting  of the NA Council.

Earlier it was reported that Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen  Simonyan initiated the process of depriving the mandates of 33 MPs of  the “Hayastan” and “I have the Honor” opposition parliamentary  factions on the basis of their absence at more than half of the  meetings of the last session of the National Assembly of the Republic  of Armenia.  According to Rubinyan, the Council decided to postpone  the discussion of the issue for a week due to the absence of  opposition representatives at the meeting. However, this is of a  technical nature, and today it has already been decided not to  address the issue to the CC, .  “We respect  the voice of the voters. We hope that the citizens who voted for  theseMPs will draw conclusions,” he explained. The decision not to  apply to the Constitutional Court is also due to the desire to  maintain political stability and solidarity in the country.  The  representative of the ruling power emphasized that the issue of  deprivation of mandates was automatically included in the agenda of  the Council, because the number of disrespectful absences exceeded  the allowed.

In response to the journalists’ remark that the opposition has always  stated that it will come to parliament only with its own agenda,  namely, the demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan, the vice speaker said that if they do not present in  parliament in the fall, the issue of applying to the CC on the basis  of missed meetings is updated again.