YEREVAN. – Four non-coalition parliamentary factions of the Armenian parliament issued a statement on voting on gas agreement signed with Russia.

In their statement, ANC, Heritage, ARF and Prosperous Armenia said the vote had to take place during the Monday special session of the parliament.

“Before the vote Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan said the online voting system was not working,” the statement reads. Therefore, Abrahamyan offered to vote by the show of hands, according to the second part of 61st article of the law on National Assembly regulations.

The non-coalition forces recall that the vote must be counted by special commission that has to make the final decision. At least four members of the commission (out of 7) must decide whether the vote was valid.

“The commission did not make any decision, according to the law on National Assembly regulations. Four out of seven member, namely Tigran Urikhanyan, Lyudmila Sargsyan, Artsvik Minasyan and Tevan Poghosyan [all members of non-coalition forces – ed.],  did not participate in any actions,” it says.

Therefore, the agreement was not ratified by the Republic of Armenia, the statement concludes.

To note, a large number of activists have gathered across the entrance of the Armenian National Assembly building, since Monday morning. They are protesting against the natural gas agreements that were signed between the Armenian and the Russian governments on December 2. Pursuant to these agreements, the remaining 20 percent of the ArmRusGazprom Company shares, which the Government of Armenia owns, will be sold to the Russian energy giant Gazprom Company. As a result, Armenia is expected be deprived of the chance to import natural gas from other countries, or to change the terms for the import of gas, until the year 2043. 

Opposition Heritage Party NA Faction Secretary Zaruhi Postanjyan had collected the voting cards of the MPs; the latter voted on the aforesaid agreements by a show of hands. As per Hovik Abrahamyan, a total of 77 deputies voted in favor of the agreements.