YEREVAN. – Ruling "My Step" bloc rammed a controversial bill on using cell phone date through the National Assembly on Tuesday, March 31.

The opposition parties – Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia – boycotted the vote, while 69 lawmakers from the ruling "My Step" bloc voted in favor with one abstention.

The amendments proposed by the government would give the authorities access to citizen’s cell phone data to track the contacts of coronavirus patients under the state of emergency. However, the Ministry of Justice insisted that they would track the calls and their length, but not the contents of the conversation. The ministry said the data would be destroyed a month after the state of emergency ends.

Earlier on Tuesday the opposition parties ruined the vote, and My Step got 65 votes "for", which was not enough to pass the amendments in the second reading.