ALTERNATIVE ALSO WITH LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES
By Karine Mangassarian

Yerkir.am
September 01, 2007

The parliament will soon start working but today the 2008 presidential
elections are already the top priority for the political actors. Many
of them link Armenia’s future with these elections.

Of course, this is a logical approach but the concern is that the
parliamentary activities might suffer because of the fuss with the
parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, it is obvious that Armenia’s future
is created not only by the elections but by legislative initiatives
aimed at improving the wellbeing of the population and accomplishing
reforms in different sectors.

We asked head of the ARF’s parliamentary faction Hrayr Karapetian to
comment on what is being done today to ensure that the parliamentary
session starting on September 10 does not suffer because of the
preparations for the presidential elections.

"Of course, all elections affect the parliamentary activities and
the upcoming elections will not be an exception. However, we should
not yield to populism and should clearly define the problems that
need an urgent solution. For the ARF, the legislative activities in
the parliament first of all derive from the decisions of the ARF’s
General and Supreme conventions and the decisions of the ARF’s Supreme
Body. The direction of our parliamentary activities will depend on
the issues the convention will find appropriate," Karapetian noted.

Karapetian says the ARF’s parliamentary faction has already determined
the main directions of its work taking into consideration the political
signposts of the ARF’s agreement with the political coalition. The
faction aims to ensure that the legislative activities are aimed
at the continuation of the economic, political and social reforms
in the country, building of the rule-of-law democratic state and
establishment of the civil society.

The legislative activities will be carried out in five main directions
– development of draft primary laws, revision of the drafts circulated
by the ARF’s faction in the parliament of the last convocation,
amendments of the legislation, development of proposals on the
important draft laws initiated by the government, development of
proposals on the draft laws circulated by individual deputies,
factions and deputy groups.

Great attention will be paid to the draft budget of 2008, examination
and development of proposals on the documents from the Central Bank,
the Energy Regulation Commission, the National Assembly Chamber of
Audit, Commission for Protection of Economic Competition and other
important documents.

"We mainly stress the importance of legislative initiatives on
the social sector taking into consideration that the law on the
Minimum Consumption Basket was adopted by the last parliament with
our faction’s initiative but the government still has not adopted the
composition of the consumption basket. We will try to once again stress
this issue during the upcoming session of the parliament since it was
included into our party’s program during the parliamentary elections,"
Karapetian assured.

Karapetian also pointed out the Law on Territorial Administration and
the Law on Bodyguard Service adopted in the first reading. Karapetian
noted that this law is an issue of principle importance for the ARF’s
faction since "life has proven the necessity of having such a law
in Armenia": the so-called "bodyguards" participate in many criminal
incidents that have recently taken place in Armenia.

The Electoral Code needs to be amended. Karapetian pointed out
the majoritarian vote since the last elections once again proved
that most of the violations occur during the elections under the
majoritarian system.

Karapetian informed that the ARF’s faction is planning to initiate
a proposal under which the deadlines stated in the Law on Persons
Escaping from Military Conscription should be extended.

"When this law was adopted about 3000 young Armenians returned to
the country. Now it is necessary that the deadlines be extended so
that those who live abroad and did not know about the law are able
to return to Armenia and lawfully avoid criminal responsibility,"
Karapetian said.

Special attention will be paid to development of anti-corruption
legislation. The faction will also continue the traditional meetings
with citizens. Monthly meetings with people in the marzes will be
organized aiming at protection of their rights and interests in the
framework of the existing legislation.

"We are no longer constrained by the coalition agreement and our
faction will follow the principle that the ARF is an independent force
on the political arena of Armenia. The ARF will be an alternative
both among the pro-governmental and opposition forces cooperating
with the government and at the same time having its own position in
all cases when the party’s position will differ from or contradict
the coalition’s position. The ARF is the balancing power between the
government and the opposition," Karapetian stated.

As to the cooperation with other political parties, the ARF is ready
to cooperate with all political parties both in and outside the
parliament if their positions on different issues coincide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress