YEREVAN — Armenia’s National Assembly elected the chairs of its standing committees by secret ballot, with 102 of the 105 lawmakers participating in the vote.
Of the 12 nominees for committee chairmanships, nine were elected. Eight represent the Civil Contract faction and one represents the Armenia faction. None of the candidates nominated by the Strong Armenia faction were elected.
Civil Contract lawmaker Vilen Gabrielyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs.
Civil Contract lawmaker Arusyak Julhakyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs.
Strong Armenia nominee Hayk Farmanyan was not elected chair of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.
Civil Contract lawmaker Sargis Khandanyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.
Civil Contract lawmaker Babken Tunyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.
Strong Armenia nominee Davit Ghazinyan was not elected chair of the Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environmental Protection.
Civil Contract lawmaker Sisak Gabrielyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Sports and Diaspora Affairs.
Armenia faction lawmaker Lilit Galstyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs.
Civil Contract lawmaker Lusine Badalyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Health Care.
Strong Armenia nominee Arega Hovsepyan was not elected chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration.
Civil Contract lawmaker Nazeli Baghdasaryan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Labor and Social Welfare.
Civil Contract lawmaker Trdat Sargsyan was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Regional and Eurasian Integration.
Under the overall distribution of leadership positions, the Civil Contract faction was allocated eight committee chairmanships and seven deputy chair positions; Strong Armenia was allocated three chairmanships and four deputy chair positions; and the Armenia faction received one chairmanship and one deputy chair position.
Strong Armenia faction leader Narek Karapetyan said the faction would nominate new candidates for the committee chair positions that remained vacant.
“Since the candidates we nominated were not elected, I believe part of the problem is that we did not present them well enough. There was not enough time to introduce our candidates to the public in a thorough and comprehensive manner,” Karapetyan said.
