PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia holding meetings at Armenian parliament.

John Prescott, co-rapporteur on Armenia, PACE Monitoring Committee, who arrived in Armenia for a 2-day visit, held meetings at the Armenian Parliament.

He held meetings with the Armenian delegation to PACE, as well as with the parliamentary groups of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), Rule of Law party, and the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnakstutyun (ARF-D) and Heritage parliamentary groups.

Armen Martirosyan, a Heritage party member informed that at the meeting with the PACE rapporteur the parliamentary group raised a number of questions – ones related to the ten deaths during the March 1,2008, tragic events, switchover to the proportional representation system proposed by Heritage and ARF-D, and the situation in Armenia's judicial and police systems. "At first, he showed a somewhat negative attitude to a complete switchover to the proportional representation system. However, toward the end of the meeting he did not show such a negative attitude any more," Martirosyan said.

The parliamentary opposition informed the PACE co-rapporteur that the "March 1 page cannot be turned over" as the report recently released by the Special Investigation Service does not contain anything new. Moreover, the report was, according Mr Martirosyan and Mr Safaryan, a step back. "They attempted to discredit the fact-finding group's work," Martirosyan added.

As regards the RPA, the PACE co-rapporteur held meetings with RPA parliamentary group Chairman Galust Sahakyan, as well as with Naira Zohrabyan and Aram Safaryan (PAP), Hovhanness Margaryan (Rule of Law), Armen Rustamyan and Ara Nranyan (ARF-D). The PACE rapporteur also met with Parliament Speaker Samvel Nilkoyan.

Parliament Vice-Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov said that the RPA has not changed its position on the latest amendments to the election law: Armenia needs both the single-mandate and proportional representation systems. "The election law is not amended by order. If they are so confident that they enjoy such high-level democracy, I offer them fair struggle and see which political force is the strongest," he said.

The RPA member Galust Sahakyan will inform the PACE co-rapporteur of all the work carried out by the ruling party to hold free and fair parliamentary elections -the reformed election code and the authorities' political will, Freedom Square, which is a platform for voicing different opinions. Also, the atmosphere of tolerance between Armenia's authorities and opposition, Sharmazanov said. 

Mr John Prescott is also scheduled to meet with representatives of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) and NGO representatives.