YEREVAN. – Today, on the initiative of the deputies, a special sitting of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia was convened, the agenda of which included 2 issues.

However, according to the NA Rules of Procedure, this morning the initiator recalled the drafts included in the agenda of the session. NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan stated this in the NA today.

He added that since there is no issue on the agenda, the session is considered closed.

"It seems the drafts were called back because of some technical problems," Mirzoyan said. “This morning, the initiator introduced a new similar bill into circulation. The [majority] My Step faction petitioned to convene a special session of the NA Council again. We will have a special session of the council in an hour, where we will discuss a similar motion to convene a special of the NA today."

The agenda of the special meeting should have included consideration of the legislative initiative of My Step faction MP Vahagn Hovakimyan, which is aimed at neutralizing the participation of the Constitutional Court in constitutional reforms. While, one of the bills provides for an amendment to the transitional provisions of the Constitution, according to which the powers of the members of the Constitutional Court, elected before April 2018, are suspended. 

Parliament’s speaker decided to discuss the draft law submitted for urgent consideration simultaneously in the first and second readings. However, according to parliament’s rules, a reasoned written proposal of MPs or fractions is necessary to discuss the bill simultaneously in the first and second readings. And this which must be approved at a meeting of the Council of Parliament, which has not been done. Mirzoyan later cancelled his decision.