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At January 11 sitting, the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs debated in the first reading the draft law on Making Addenda to the Constitutional Law the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. The NA deputy Vilen Gabrielyan presented the proposal. The Article 138 of the law on the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly defines the order of the elections of the Chairs of the NA Standing Committees and their Deputies Chair. According to the current regulation, if the Chair of the Standing Committee is not elected, then the competent faction nominates a new candidate for the vacant position within ten days after the voting. The order of the election of the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee is not clearly regulated yet.

The Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the RA National Assembly of the 8^th convocation has not been able to elect a Deputy Chair of the Committee for a long time. The competent faction constantly nominates the same candidate who is not elected by the majority of the Committee members. As a result of not closing the legislative gap, any Committee of the RA National Assembly can face the same problem and will not have a Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee during the whole convocation.

It is proposed to supplement Article 138 of the Law with a new 11.1, pursuant to which, if a Deputy Chair of the Committee is not elected, then the competent faction nominates a new candidate within five working days after the voting.

The Deputy Chair of the Committee Vahagn Hovakimyan has expressed an opinion, that there was a need to close the legislative gap, which is suggested by the author.

The deputies of the opposition factions Aram Vardevanyan and Anna Mkrtchyan spoke out against the proposed regulation, considering it not a democratic step. Artur Davtyan and Arpine Davoyan presented justifications to close the legislative gap and highlighted the adoption of the draft. As the Committee Chair Vladimir Vardanyan has said, there is no restriction in the draft that if a person is not elected to the position of a Deputy Chair of the Committee, then he/she can never be nominated for that position. If not elected, a new candidate will be nominated. According to him, the D’Hondt method will be preserved, as it is one of the most important guarantees of parliamentary democracy.

The Committee endorsed the legislative proposal.

The debate of the legislative package on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Civil Code and on Making Addenda and Amendment to the Law on State Registration of Rights to the Property authored by the NA deputies Babken Tunyan, Narek Zeynalyan and Lusine Badalyan was postponed up to two months.