Armenian parliament votes to dismiss two opposition lawmakers as deputy speaker and head of committee

YEREVAN, July 1. /ARKA/. By a vote of 66 to no votes against and abstentions Armenia's National Assembly dominated by the ruling Civil Contract party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has dismissed today National Assembly's vice-speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan, while Vahe Hakobyan was dismissed as chairman of a National Assembly's standing committee on economic issues.

An emergency session of the parliament convened on Friday by the Civil Contract's faction was not attended by opposition lawmakers from Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions.

Saghatelyan, a senior member of the Hayastan alliance, was one of the three vice-speakers of the National Assembly. Vahe Hakobyan is also from the Hayastan alliance.

Saghatelyan's dismissal does not deprive the opposition of the right to have its representative as deputy parliament speaker. It will have to nominate a new candidate for the post.

The formal reason behind the dismissal of the two opposition MPS is the absence from more than half of the sittings of the National Assembly.

Hayastan and Pativ Unem have been boycotting parliament sessions since May 3 when they started a campaign of disobedience in a bid to make Pashinyan resign, whom they accuse of preparing to place Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of Azerbaijan.-0-