Parliament Elects New Court Of Cassation Judge

The Armenian Parliament building in Yerevan

The Armenian parliament on Wednesday elected Arsen Mkrtchian judge of the Civil and Administrative Chamber of the Court of Cassation.

Out of 132 lawmakers, 102 took part in the secret ballot; four ballots were declared invalid.

A total of 87 lawmakers voted for Mkrtchian, 11 for his rival Armen Haykiants.

The two candidates competed for the vacant position of a judge in the second round of voting after receiving the highest number of votes in the first round in which three candidates nominated by the Supreme Judicial Council participated.

On March 4, the Parliament failed to elect a new judge of the Court of Cassation after the majority My Step boycotted the voting, thus expressing its attitude towards the chairman of the Supreme Justice Council, Ruben Vardazarian, whom it accused of making a political statement.

Vardazarian denied that his appeal to judges on November 15 contained any political message.