1 / 3

According to Article 102 of the Law on Local Self-Government, if the first sitting of the Council of Elders of the community united by law is not convened within twenty days of assuming the powers of the Council of Elders or the powers of the Council of Elders are prematurely terminated in accordance with the established procedure, then the Prime Minister is given the authority to appoint an Acting Head of the community.

According to the amendment to the law on Local Self-Government, the deputies of Armenia Faction propose that in the event that the first sitting of the Council of Elders of the community formed by the proportional election system is not convened within twenty days from the moment of assuming the powers of the Council of Elders, the RA Prime Minister should appoint the Acting Head of the community with the written proposal of the Faction with the largest number of mandates of the given Council of Elders to the Faction member nominated by that Faction.

The Government suggests to refrain from the proposed regulation, to leave the articles of the current law unchanged. The position of the Executive regarding the initiative was presented by the RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Vache Terteryan. According to the Government, when appointing the Acting Head of the community, it is more important to assume political responsibility in the matter of appointment. In the proposed version, the Prime Minister will assume this responsibility, but the appointment of the Acting Head will be made based on the proposal of the Faction. In that case, taking political responsibility will have a formal nature, because it was not initiated by the appointer, but by the written proposal of the Faction with the largest number of mandates in the community council.

The bill on Making Amendment and Addendum to the Law on Local Self-Government authored by the deputies Armenuhi Kyureghyan, Garnik Danielyan, Arman Ghazaryan and Artur Sargsyan of the NA Armenia Faction was debated by the Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment Protection at May 17 sitting in the first reading.

The draft was not endorsed.