The pro-government majority in the National Assembly has raised eyebrows after failing to install a new member of Armenia’s state judicial watchdog nominated by it.
The ruling My Step alliance last week nominated Anna Margarian, a law professor at Yerevan State University, for a vacant seat in the Supreme Judicial Council. Margarian had to be backed by at least 80 members of the 132-member parliament. With My Step holding 88 parliament seats, her election seemed a forgone conclusion.
However, only 66 deputies voted for Margarian in secret ballot on Monday. Nineteen others voted against her appointment to the SJC.
Only one parliamentary force, the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), spoke out against her candidacy before the vote.
A senior LHK parliamentarian, Gevorg Gorgisian, on Tuesday accused My Step of demonstrating an “unserious attitude” towards its own nominee. Gorgisian said he believes that some pro-government lawmakers broke ranks to vote against Margarian.
My Step’s parliamentary leader, Lilit Makunts, ruled out such a possibility. She said no member of the parliament majority had objected to Margarian’s appointment.
However, another senior My Step lawmaker, Vahagn Hovakimian, did not exclude that some of his pro-government colleagues voted against her “for some reasons.”
Armenia - Anna Margarian, a candidate for the Supreme Judicial Council, speaks in the parliament, July 1, 2019.
Hovakimian suggested that Margarian would have been elected if about two dozen deputies had not been absent from Armenia on Monday due to business trips abroad. According to information available on the parliament’s website, 12 of them are from My Step.
Armenian law allows My Step to again nominate Margarian for the SJC. Makunts said that later on Monday the bloc led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made such an offer to Margarian but that the latter was “not inclined” to accept it.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Margarian made clear that she does not “find it expedient” to again run for the SJC. She insisted that she was not offended by the outcome of the parliament vote.
The SJC has wide-ranging constitutional powers, including the right to nominate judges appointed by the president of the republic. It can also sanction and even terminate judges.
The SJC was effectively paralyzed by the resignations of five of its nine members last month just as Pashinian and his political allies continued to push for a sweeping reform of the national judiciary. Later in June, the parliament elected two new members of the watchdog nominated by My Step.
Under the Armenian Judicial Code, the SJC must have 10 members. Half of them are appointed by the parliament while the other half are chosen by the country’s judges. As things stand now, the parliament can pick one more member of the body, with the remaining three seats reserved for the judges.