The September 27 extraordinary sitting began by the voting of the debated drafts. The MPs adopted the draft on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Law on Trade Unions submitted for the first reading and the draft of the RA Law, on Alienation of Property for Public and State Needs submitted for the second reading was rejected for not having the necessary number of votes.
The National Assembly continued to debate the draft laws, interrupted at the previous sitting on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Law on Television and Radio, on Making Amendments to the RA Law on Rules of Procedure of the National Committee of Television and Radio and relating to them the draft law on Making Addendum to the RA Law on State Duty.
The MPs Mr. Viktor Dallakyan, Mr. Hovhannes Margaryan and Mr. Arshak Sadoyan conditioned the presented amendments by the intention of depriving the political figures from the air during the pre-electoral period. They considered inadmissible granting monopole rights to the Public Radio Television and additional functions of unjustified intervention into private TV companies’ works to the National Commission.
Mr. Gegham Manukyan, presenting the opinion of ARF faction on the debated drafts, noted that the draft conditioning by the constitutional amendments is not substantiated, with the exception of the provision related to the formation of the National Commission. He said that it was inadmissible to submit such a draft with numerous shortcomings without public and specialized serious discussion and proposed the Government to take it back and submit to the National Assembly an amended draft based on comprehensive discussions.
Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly, in his extraordinary speech considered inadmissible the negative attitude related to the drafts based on the constitutional amendments, and expressed conviction that the productive solution should be found through constructive proposals in order to eliminate the shortcomings. The President of the National Assembly noted that he also has a number of reservations related to a number of provisions of the draft, moreover, there are even key shortcomings in the draft, but he proposed to organize serious discussions after the first reading, improve the draft and during the second reading express a position regardless it is negative or positive.
In his final speech Mr. Davit Harutyunyan, Justice Minister, addressed to the MPs and the representatives of the Radio and TV to have active participation in the improvement of the draft through constructive proposals, which should be included in the draft before the second reading.
The MPs also debated the draft on Amending the RA Law on The Rates of Environment Payments, which presented Minister of Environmental Protection, Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan.
The MPs debated the draft on Making Amendments to the RA Customs Code, which aims at displaying in drams the defined criteria in foreign currency. On the basis of the calculations is the account of 1 USD=500 AMD, by which the income part of 2005 state budget is envisaged.
The draft on the Order of Reimbursing the Losses of the Budget Incomes by the State as a Result of the Enforcement of the RA Laws on Reducing the Community Budget Incomes, the drafts submitted for the second reading on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Law on Trade Unions, on Making Amendments to the RA Law on Customs Service and the international treaties on Accepting the proposal of the President of the Republic of Armenia related to the expedience of stopping the function, for the Republic of Armenia, the agreement on the Status of the CIS Economic Court and between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the United States of America on the Employment of Dependents of Employee Assigned to Official Duty in the Receiving State were also debated.
Exhausting the agenda, the National Assembly completed the work of the extraordinary sitting. The voting of not discussed drafts was postponed.