On March 21, Armenian National Assembly finally adopted the bill on Legal Regime of the State of Emergency with 67 votes for. The opposition parties boycotted the voting.Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Samvel Nikoyan did not offer the bill on Legal Regime of the State of Emergency for voting on March 20.
The voting was first postponed for 20 minutes upon request of the parliamentary group of the Republican Party of Armenia, then the ruling party doubted they can “pass” the bill, taking into account lack of the required number of MPs (74 MPs out of total 131 attended the session, with quorum making 66).
The National Assembly of Armenia passed on March 1 the bill “On legal regime of the state of emergency” with 67 votes for and 1 against; opposition MPs boycotted the bill and did not vote at all.
The new draft law “On legal regime of the state of emergency” was adopted in the National Assembly of Armenia on February 9, 2012 in the first reading. Then Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan called the bill back for amendment.
The revised bill was submitted to the parliament again. Opposition believes this bill is unconstitutional since it gives the President personal authorities to declare a state of emergency (the president consults the prime minister and the speaker of the parliament but takes the decision independently), as well as envisages involvement of army to eliminate the threat that resulted in a state of emergency.
