Gagik Tsarukyan might be stripped of parliamentary seat

The chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Galust Saakyan, has allegedly applied to the Central Electoral Commission, asking the CEC to strip lawmaker Gagik Tsarukyan of his seat.

"This is an unexpected development, because everybody expected the issue to be put to a vote at the plenary session of the National Assembly – something stipulated by Article 99 of the NA Regulations," armtimes.com cited its source.

The Haykakan Zhamanak daily has a document showing that Gagik Tsarukyan’s absences from the previous fall session were considered to be excused absences. It turns out that Galust Saakyan will have to annul his own decision to consider Tsarukyan’s absences from NA sessions as excusable.