The National Assembly of Armenia (, Hayastani Hanrapetyut'yan Azgayin zhoghov or simply Ազգային ժողով, ԱԺ, Azgayin Zhoghov, AZh), also informally referred to as the Parliament of Armenia (խորհրդարան, khorhrdaran), is the legislative branch of the government of Armenia.
Overview The National Assembly was originally established in 1918 as the Khorhurd () by the Armenian National Council following their declaration of independence. Acting as the nation's provisional legislative body, the Armenian National Council tripled its membership, forming an interim coalition government composed of Dashnaks and Populists.
Following the Armenian parliamentary elections of 1919, the National Assembly's membership increased again up to 80 deputies including several minority representatives. The Khorhurd continued to function with an overwhelming Dashnak majority through four Prime Ministers in the span of two years, until the Sovietisation of Armenia in 1920.
From 1938, the National Assembly of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was referred to as the Supreme Council of Armenia. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the adoption of the new Constitution of Armenia in 1995, the formation of the current National Assembly was established.
The National Assembly is a unicameral body. The National Assembly consists of at least 101 seats, but with additional seats allocated, it may grow and reach to about 200 seats in extremely rare cases. The President of the National Assembly is Alen Simonyan.
Electoral system
After electoral system amendments introduced in April 2021 members of parliament are elected only through closed party lists by party list proportional representation method.
Four mandates are reserved for national minorities, provided they are included in corresponding section of party lists. Any top segment of a party list can not include over 70% of representatives of the same sex.
Parties need to pass 4% of votes and alliances (blocs) of two or three parties 8%. Alliances of four or more parties need 10% threshold respectively to be included in mandate distribution.
By law, parliament must have at least 3 political forces present, even if one or more of them did not pass the electoral threshold. In this case, the sheer percentage decides which party enters parliament, regardless of whether it is a party or a bloc.
If neither party wins over 50% of mandates in the first round and no coalition with sufficient mandates is established within 6 days after the election results announcement a second round of elections will be carried out on 28th day of the first round voting. Two best-performing political forces are allowed to participate in the second round. All mandates received as per first round will be preserved. The party (or a newly formed coalition) which wins second round of elections will be given additional number of mandates to reach 54% of all seats (provided the newly formed coalition does not already have over 54% of mandates from the results of the first round).
If any party or bloc wins over 2/3 of mandates sufficient additional mandates are distributed among all other political forces represented in the parliament to ensure that at least 1/3 of all seats are held by forces other than the winning one.
Since the requirement of assignment of 1/3 of all mandates to non-ruling parties is stipulated by the Constitution some argue, that when withdrawal of oppositional MPs leads to violation of that rule the ruling party shall be forced to call new snap elections. This is however not a consensus opinion and probably shall be dealt with in Constitutional Court.
Historically, significant share of cast votes (1995: 12.8%, 1999: 18.6%, 2003: 24.0%, 2007: 24.7%, 2012: 1.6%, 2017: 9.1%, 2018: 14.9%, 2021: 19.8%, 2026: 16.8%) fell below election threshold and was disregarded in mandate distribution.
Representatives Speakers of the Parliament of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) Avetik Sahakyan 1 August 1918 – 1 August 1919 Avetis Aharonyan 1 August 1919 – 4 November 1920 Hovhannes Kajaznuni 4 November 1920 – 2 December 1920
Chairmen of the Supreme Council (1990–1995) Levon Ter-Petrosyan 4 August 1990 – 11 November 1991 Babken Ararktsyan 24 December 1991 – 27 July 1995
Presidents of the National Assembly (1995–)
Babken Ararktsyan 27 July 1995 – 4 February 1998 Khosrov Harutyunyan 4 February 1998 – 11 June 1999 Karen Demirchyan 11 June 1999 – 27 October 1999 (assassinated in 1999) Armen Khachatryan 2 November 1999 – 12 June 2003 Artur Baghdasaryan 12 June 2003 – 1 June 2006 Tigran Torosyan 1 June 2006 – 26 September 2008 Hrayr Karapetyan (acting) 26 September 2008 – 29 September 2008 Hovik Abrahamyan 28 September 2008 – 21 November 2011 Samvel Nikoyan 6 December 2011 – 31 May 2012 Hovik Abrahamyan 31 May 2012 – 13 April 2014 Galust Sahakyan 29 April 2014 – 18 May 2017 Ara Babloyan 18 May 2017 – 14 January 2019 Ararat Mirzoyan 14 January 2019 – 2 August 2021 Alen Simonyan 2 August 2021 – 3 August 2026 Ruben Rubinyan 3 August 2026 – Present
Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly
Babken Ararktsyan 1990 – 1991 Gagik Harutyunyan 1990 – 1991 Ara Sahakian 1991 – 1998 Artashes Tumanyan 1991 – 1995 Karapet Rubinyan 1995 – 1998 Albert Bazeyan 1998 – 1999 Yuri Bakhshyan 1998 – 1999 (assassinated in 1999) Ruben Miroyan 1999 (assassinated in 1999) Gagik Aslanian 1999 – 2003 Tigran Torosyan 1999 – 2006 Vahan Hovhannisyan 2003 – 2008 Ishkhan Zakarian 2007 Arevik Petrosyan 2007 – 2010 Hrayr Karapetyan 2008 – 2009 Samvel Nikoyan 2009 – 2012 Samvel Balasanyan 2010 – 2012 Hermine Naghdalyan 2012 – 2017 Eduard Sharmazanov 2011 – 2019 Arpine Hovhannisyan 2017 – 2019 Mikayel Melkumyan 2017 – 2019 Alen Simonyan 2019 – 2021 Lena Nazaryan 2019 – 2021 Vahe Enfiajyan 2019 – 2021 Ruben Rubinyan 2021 – 2026 Hakob Arshakyan 2021 – 2026 Hayk Konjoryan 2026 – Present Vahagn Alexanyan 2026 – Present
Historical composition (People's & Republican)TotalSeats 1990 136 59 64 259 1995 10 8 5 88 7 72 190 1999 10 62 8 6 6 7 32 131
TotalSeats 2003 11 33 9 37 6 14 19 2 131 2007 16 59 25 13 10 7 1 131 2012 5 62 35 8 7 6 5 3 131 2017 7 58 31 9 105
TotalSeats2018 26 88 18 132
TotalSeats 2021 29 7 71 107 2026 12 29 64 105
Latest election
Committees
Standing Committees The National Assembly has eleven standing committees: Standing Committee on Defense and Security Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Standing Committee on European Integration Standing Committee on Financial and Budgeting Affairs Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs Standing Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment Standing Committee on Territorial Integration
Changes according to the Constitutional Reform of 2015 According to the new constitution of Armenia (2015 Constitutional Reforms), the functions of committees previously defined as ad hoc committees are divided into temporary and inquiry committees. As stated in article 107 of the new Constitution, temporary committees may be developed only by the decision of the National Assembly to discuss certain draft laws and acts of the National Assembly and present views or statements connected to the National Assembly.
Article 108 is about the inquiry committees of the National Assembly.
1. The inquiry committee should be formed if at least the twenty-five percent of the total number of parliamentarians present the demand, in order to acquaint facts of public interests to the National Assembly.
2. The National Assembly regulates the number of members of an inquiry committee. The places of the inquiry committees should be proportional to the number of faction's members. The chair of the committee should be the member of the parliament who presented a request.
3. If minimum one-quarter of an inquiry committee demands; state, local self-government bodies and officials are compelled to introduce to the committee required information regarding its remit, if the information is not classified as secrets protected by law.
All the other regulations concerning temporary and inquiry committee should be established by the Law on Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly.
Concerns relating to the ad hoc committees and the international experience
According to the latest Constitutional Reforms Armenia will have a parliamentary state governance system. This means that compared to the semi-presidential system the powers of the Parliament will be enhanced, an example of this is the right of oversight of the executive power of the republic which is and will be exercised by the Government (as of article 85 of the current and article 145 the new Constitutions). So, the Parliament will have more powers and functions; therefore, it needs more tools to exercise these powers and perform its functions. An inquiry committee is a great tool for the parliament to exercise oversight and that is why according to articles 107 and 108 of the new Constitution there is a differentiation between temporary and inquiry committees.
However, in late 2015, there was a concern relating to the powers of these committees as prescribed by the article 108 of the new Constitution. Edmon Marukyan, the only non-party Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia, suggested an addendum to the point 3 of article 108. According to him, the addendum should prescribe that the inquiry committees should be empowered to demand state and local self-government body officials to be present in the sittings of the committees and provide relevant explanations. The improvement was suggested for the first time on 11 September 2015, during the session of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly. By then, the suggestion received a positive feedback and the committee members stated that it could be approved on the constitutional level. However, the decision on the official proposal to the National Assembly was to include the addendum in the rules of procedure of the NA rather than in the Constitution.
The international experience shows that giving such powers to inquiry committees is a common thing. Point 7 of rule 176 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament states that "A committee of inquiry may contact the institutions or persons referred to in Article 3 of the Decision referred to in paragraph 2 with a view to holding a hearing or obtaining documents." Even though it was prescribed neither by the Constitution nor the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly that temporary committees have the power to hold a hearing with the presence of state and local self-government body officials, there was such a case when the committee held a closed-door hearing. On 23 October 2008 with the order of the President of Armenia, a temporary committee of experts was formed on obtaining facts and evidence on the incidents of 1 March 2008. So as to gain the necessary information the committee was given the tools typical to a real parliamentarian inquiry committee.
Ad hoc committees as prescribed by the Constitution and Laws
Ad hoc committees are special temporary committees established by the decision of the National Assembly to discuss certain draft laws, or investigate certain issues, events or facts and to submit conclusions to the National Assembly. The aim of these committees is to draw attention to exceptional cases that are not covered by the standing committees.
According to the Constitution of Armenia, Article 73