Impeachment Bill Defeated in Parliament

Member of Parliament Nikol Pashinyan.

Member of Parliament Nikol Pashinyan of the Armenian National Congress faction had submitted a draft bill, “On the Impeachment of Serzh Sargsyan who occupies the office of President of the Republic of Armenia,” to the State and Legal Standing Committee on February 20. Of the members comprising the Standing Committee, only Member of Parliament Zaruhi Postanjyan of the Heritage Party had voted in favor, while the remaining five had voted against the bill. Regardless of the outcome in the Committee, according to the regulations of Armenia’s National Assembly, the draft bill was submitted nonetheless on February 23 for a vote in parliament to determine whether it would be included in the session’s agenda.

With a vote of 68 opposed and four in favor, the motion to have the draft bill included in the parliament’s agenda was defeated.

When Khachatur Kokebelyan of the Heritage party faction suggested that the draft bill be discussed by all opposition factions to arrive at a unified position, Pashinyan rejected the offer and said that after months of discussing the bill with no offers of cooperation, he was going to go ahead and put it to a vote.

Alexander Arzumanyan of the Heritage Party faction said that he would vote in favor of the draft bill because he couldn’t understand how it was possible to talk about impeaching Sargsyan for years on end and not take the opportune moment to vote on it.

Levon Zurabyan presented the position of the Armenian National Congress faction and said that they will vote against the motion because the bill was not discussed within and among the opposition factions. “We believe that this important issue must not be put to a vote at a politically inopportune time, to fail to garner enough votes and through that turn it into a dividend in the hands of the regime,” Zurabyan noted.