Wednesday, October 23 2019 10:57

ArmInfo.The deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia at the meeting on October 23 in the second and final reading voted against the draft amendments submitted  by the Enlightened Armenia faction to the law "On Service in the  National Security Bodies" and the package of related laws. 15  deputies voted for the adoption of the package, while 94 were  against.

Recall that the package provided for the appointment of persons to  senior positions in national security bodies, as well as other  security agencies, to apply criteria that meet the requirements put  forward to candidates for deputies or members of the government.  According to the leader of the Enlightened Armenia faction Edmond  Marukyan, the second reading received only one proposal from the  Prosperous Armenia faction, which was rejected by the authors of the  package. The deputy noted that there were always problems with the  appointment of the chiefs of the SNB and the police. "During the  discussion of the government's structure, it was repeatedly noted  that law enforcement agencies are political bodies, respectively,  should be included in the government, but all our proposals were  ignored. We suggest that when appointing people to governing bodies  of law enforcement agencies apply criteria that would meet the  requirements, put forward before candidates for deputies or members  of the government, "said Edmon Marukyan. He also pointed out that the  heads of law enforcement agencies should be citizens of Armenia at  least 25 years old, have lived at least four years in the republic,  have a higher legal education and have at least five years of  experience. According to the deputy, the parliamentary system of  government implies equal requirements both for deputies, members of  the government and judges, and for employees of other structures.

After the October 23 vote, Edmon Marukyan demanded that the  Parliament decide to consider the issue in a second reading over the  next two weeks, in order to introduce the necessary amendments. This  proposal of the deputy was adopted by 113 votes.

Earlier on his Facebook page, Edmond Marukyan noted that the package  proposes to exclude the posts of the Chief of Police and the Director  of the National Security Service from the list of posts of police  officers and national security bodies and to include them in the list  of political posts.