ARMENIA ADVOCATES CHANGING THE PROCEDURE OF ELECTING BSEC SECRETARY GENERAL
/ ARKA /
May 25, 2011
YEREVAN
Armenia and a number of member countries of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation organization (BSEC) would like to revise the procedure
of electing secretary general of the organization, Gagik Minasian,
an Armenian parliament member from the ruling Republican Party and
head of the Armenian delegation to BSEC, told a news conference today.
He said the election of secretary general is a complicated and lengthy
process, and besides chances of member countries are not equal.
He explained that the election proceeds in two phases – in the first a
candidate is voted separately by delegates from member countries and in
the next stage, each country is entitled to one vote. The winner is the
candidate who receives at least half the votes of the member states.
Minasian said this issue was a subject of fierce debate at the
recent enlarged meeting of the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly, with six
candidates from 12 countries being nominated for the post. Armenia
nominated him and Oleg Ghukasyan.
“With so many candidates nobody has been able to collect the necessary
number of votes,” he said.
According to Minasian, the delicacy of the situation is that the
number of a country delegates depends on the number of its population.
“For example, Armenia, Moldova and Albania are represented by four
delegates, whereas Russia has a delegation of 12 people, and voting
results are directly dependent on the number of delegates, creating
an uneven playing field,” Minasyan said.
Therefore, he said, representatives of some countries made a proposal
to radically change the system of electing secretary general,
demanding a rotational principle. As a result a special group,
consisting of one representative from each member country was set up
that will convene 13-14 June in Istanbul to discuss issues related
to the proposed changes. The election is scheduled for June 30 at a
BSEC Parliamentary Assembly session in Kiev, Ukraine.
“For Armenia, it is very important to have a representative in Turkey,
and with a diplomatic passport, especially in the capacity of secretary
general of BSEC,” he said.
Black Sea Economic Cooperation was founded May 1, 1999. Headquartered
in Istanbul the Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC includes Azerbaijan,
Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania,
Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.