Yerevan City Council fails to elect Mayor due to absence of quorum at extraordinary session

July 16, 2018 By administrator

Yerevan City Council fails

Monday’s session of the Yerevan Council of Elders, and with the agenda of electing a new mayor of Armenia’s capital city, was not convened.

After returning from the announced recess, First Deputy Mayor Kamo Areyan announced that if there was no quorum at the municipal council session, a recess was announced, and that if there was no quorum after the recess too, the session was considered non-convened.

“At this time, there is no quorum at the Yerevan Council of Elders’ session,” Areyan stated. “[So] the session is considered non-convened.”

After Taron Margaryan’s resignation from his post as Yerevan Mayor on July 9, the municipal council had decided to convene a session on Monday, and to elect a new mayor. The sole mayoral candidate was Zaruhi Postanjyan, chairperson of the Yerkir Tsirani (Apricot Country) Party and of its faction at the Yerevan Council of Elders.

But two of the three political forces represented in the Yerevan municipal council—namely, the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia and the “Way Out” (Yelk) coalition—had announced that not only were they not going to nominate a mayoral candidate, but, also, they would not attend Monday’s session.

Only five members—including the three members of the Yerkir Tsirani faction and Deputy Mayor Kamo Areyan, who was chairing—were in attendance to this session.

Pursuant to the rules, if the session is not convened, a snap Yerevan Council of Elders’ election shall be conducted.

Breaking News: Armenian parliament fails to elect Prime Minister in first round of voting after 9-hour debates

May 1, 2018 By administrator

Armenian parliament fails to elect Prime Minister

YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. After nearly 9 hours of debates on electing a Prime Minister, with opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan being the sole candidate, the Armenian parliament failed to make the election as 55 lawmakers voted against and 45 lawmakers voted in favor.

The only nominated candidate for Prime Minister was opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, who spearheaded the latest protest campaigns which prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on April 23.

Pashinyan was nominated by the opposition Yelk faction.

Two other factions – Tsarukyan and the ARF – have endorsed the opposition MPs candidacy.

Pashinyan needed at least 53 votes to be elected Prime Minister.

There are 4 factions in the Armenian parliament. The Republican Party (HHK) faction, the ruling party of Armenia, has 58 seats in the 105-seat unicameral parliament of Armenia – known as the National Assembly. The ARF faction – (Armenian Revolutionary Federation aka Dashnaktsutyun), has 7 seats. The Tsarukyan alliance has 31 seats, and the Yelk faction has 9 seats.

According to the Constitution, in case of failure to elect a Prime Minister in the parliament, a second round of election is held seven days later. In the second round, candidates nominated by at least one third of the total number of MPs are entitled to participate in the election. If a Prime Minister isn’t elected in the second round also, the parliament is dissolved by virtue of law.

Washington: With Republicans divided, health bill collapses

July 18, 2017 By administrator

The man in the middle: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky)

A Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare has collapsed, with the party divided over the contents of a new health-care bill. President Trump had been pushing for a legislative win to call his own.

“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (above) said in a statement Monday night.

The failure to pass the bill marks a humiliating defeat for Republicans, who have sought desperately to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to dismantle the 2010 health-care reforms of his predecessor Barack Obama.

Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the upper chamber, giving the party a slim two-seat majority over their Democratic colleagues. McConnell had needed at least 50 of his Republican senators to support the “Trumpcare” bill.

But Republican senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Jerry Moran’s (Kansas) late Monday announcement that they would join Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) in opposing the bill effectively killed any remaining chance for the legislation to be passed. A vote had been expected as early as next week.

McConnell already had delayed the vote on the bill in the previous days due to the Senate absence of Republican John McCain (Arizona) who is recovering from surgery and whose vote would have been needed to pass the proposed repeal-and-replace legislation. After Lee and Moran’s announcements, McCain himself called for a new start on the initiative.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan federal financial analysis agency, had yet to provide the figures for the cost and the number of potentially uninsured Americans that the now-dead bill would have caused. However, the CBO’s review of an earlier draft found that the proposed changes would have caused 22 million Americans to become uninsured by 2026, with some low-income individuals priced out of being able to afford health insurance.

The reason for the CBO’s postponement was not known.

Moving fowards by going backwards?

McConnell revised the bill last week as he attempted to navigate a tricky divide within the Republican party and win support from critical senators who had been holding out on a “yes” vote either because the bill went too far or did not go far enough.

The bill’s main points included repealing the tax penalities on individuals who do not buy insurance and cuts to federal funding of Medicaid, which helps cover health-care costs for the poor and disabled. It would have kept Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy, but eliminated them on insurers, medical device manufacturers and others.

Turkey coalition deal fails

August 18, 2015 By administrator

A last-ditch effort by Turkey’s incumbent prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to form a coalition failed on August 17 as a meeting with the country’s main nationalist party ended with no agreement, paving the way for new elections, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“Mr. Bahcheli said he doesn’t consider a coalition with the AKP [Justice and Development Party] possible,” Davutoglu told reporters at a press conference following his meeting with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahcheli.
Bahcheli was the one who first put forth his position on the matter during their meeting, Davutoglu said, adding that the MHP leader repeated his strict conditions for the formation of a coalition.
Bahcheli not only shut down the prospects for a coalition partnership, but also refused to be part of a short-lived alliance to govern until early elections and support a minority government that would be held by the AKP, Davutoglu said.
“He said they would be present in parliament in the event of a vote on an early election but would not support such a decision,” Davutoglu said after the meeting which took place days before a 45-day deadline to establish a new government runs out on Aug. 23.
Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Chelik accompanied the AKP leader, while MHP Deputy Chair Semih Yalchin accompanied Bahcheli during the meeting. Following their gathering at Bahcheli’s office in parliament, both leaders reviewed the meeting with the executives of their parties.