Eduard Sharmazanov: I do not see any logic here (video)
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) member Mikael Melkumyan did not participate in today’s vote on the Luxury Tax which was initiated by him. This confused the Republican lawmakers. “This is nonsense,” said Vice-Chairman of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov. His teammates had voted in favour of the bill authored by a BHK lawmaker who did not even show up in parliament. “The BHK did not participate in the vote, probably thinking that the bill was initiated by the Republican Party, in fact, BHK is a co-author of the bill. I do not see any logic here,” said Sharmazanov. “I was not in the hall,” Mikael Melkumyan said when explaining his absence. “The decision was taken by the party and I could not simply ignore it.” For her part, BHK lawmaker Naira Zohrabyan said she was not against Melkumyan participation in the vote but they were to honour the decision of their party. “During today’s meeting of representatives from the Heritage, Prosperous Armenia, Armenian National Congress and ARF –Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary factions, the quartet decided that none of the four parties would participate in the vote,” she said. Speaking about BHK’s decision to vote for Galust Sahakyan as the next parliament speaker, Naira Zohrabyan said, “Should the quartet nominate a joint candidate, the BHK would surely support that candidate.”
