On 29 March, after heated debates and with 93 “in favor”, the Parliament of Armenia adopted the bill on making amendments to the Law “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly”. The bill concerns the procedure for nominating a candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court.

The parliament discussed the provision according to which the election of a judge of the Constitutional Court, including the nomination of a candidate and assumption of office must be enshrined in the Law “On the Constitutional Court”. This is what conditions the need for introducing amendments; otherwise, there would be a legal vacuum in the constitution.

The essence of the bill is the following: the Government of Armenia proposed to remove from the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly the provision according to which, if a judge of the Constitutional Court is not elected, the authorized body (President of the Republic-ed) must nominate a new candidate within 10 days. The essence of the supplement is that the authorized body shall nominate the same candidate again, if no candidate is elected by the National Assembly. However, after discussions held by the Standing Committee on State-Legal Affairs, the parliamentarians came to terms and decided to refuse the statement “again”, leaving the word “new”. The only thing that was amended was the period. According to the new amendment, the authorized body must present a candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court within one month.