Change to parliamentary system would reduce number of MPs in Armenia

Change to parliamentary system would reduce number of MPs in Armenia –

Armenianow – If a referendum passes in favor of changing Armenia’s government to a parliamentary system, the number of Parliament Members would likely be reduced from its present 131, to 75. 

“If there is a change, it must be a certain visible quantitative change, or everything must be left the same,” Vahram Baghdasaryan, Republican Party of Armenia executive member told reporters, adding that he is inclined to the option with fewer MPs and a more professional parliament. “We are discussing such questions, we will definitely introduce this one as well.”

Armenia was a country with a parliamentary system of administration still in 1918, during its short-lived first republic. It had four political parties, and in the first parliament convocation there were 46, and in the second – 80 MPs.

And in 1920, after Soviet order was established, the highest official body of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was the Supreme Council, it was elected for a five-year period, had one chamber and was made up of 340 MPs, and these were elected among electoral constituencies with equal number of population.

At the threshold of independence the first convocation of the Supreme Council of Armenia in 1990 was formed by a majoritarian system and had 260 MPs.

After independence and passing on to presidential system on July 5, 1995, the first Armenian convocation of National Assembly elections took place, during which 190 MPs were elected: 150 – by a majoritarian system and 40 – by proportional.

In 1999, the number of MPs was reduced to 131 – a number that coincides with the number of Armenian patriarchs.

It has often been debated whether a country of less than three million, such as Armenia, needs so many legislators. In countries of similar size – Latvia, Moldova, Estonia – the number of parliamentarians is 100.

According to political analyst Stepan Grigoryan, in Armenia as well, the number of MPs must be decreased to at least 100.

“In any country, there can be no fewer than 100 MPs in a Parliament, because the political fight is a cruel thing, political processes get very grave and if a political team is very small, it means it would be very easy to press them,” the political analyst told ArmeniaNow. He added that a parliament system includes factions, and if the number of the MPs is 74, for instance in that parliament there can be no more than three factions, while the parliament is a multi-party body and the goal is that different parties are introduced in it.