Nikol Pashinyan’s Promise: Will the Government Sessions be open?

Governmental sessions are closed since 9 April of this year. It is possible to find out in detail what projects have been approved by the executive only after receiving the message sent from the government staff at the end of the day.

This change took place before Serzh Sargsyan’s election as Prime Minister. The Draft Law “On the structure and activity of the government” was adopted by the National Assembly on 23 March in the second reading, and then signed on 30 March by incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan. The law came into force on 9 April.

Paragraph 16 of Article 10 of this Law states: “Government sessions are closed. By the decision of the Prime Minister a part of the session may be held open.”

During the protests in Yerevan on 30 April, Nikol Pashinyan announced that if he was elected Prime Minister, his first step would be to open the government sessions again. “It will be my first symbolic step that we shall take to cancel the decision to hold the government’s closed-door sessions. If there is no legislative barrier, it will not be necessary to change the law and only then to implement it, I think there will be no problem,” Pashinyan said.

And on the assumption of the fact that on Prime Minister’s decision it is possible to hold open part of the session, it is expected that part of the upcoming government session will be open, as well as the legal regulation to make the government sessions open will be an issue of discussion.