Ex-justice minister calls for results-oriented opposition in Armenia's new parliament

Former Armenian Justice Minister and Deputy National Assembly Speaker Arpine Hovhannisyan called for the country's parliamentary opposition to be judged solely by its ability to achieve political results, arguing that the record of the 2021-2026 legislature demonstrates the failure of rhetoric and parliamentary activity alone to produce meaningful political change.

In a social media post ahead of the inaugural session of Armenia's newly elected parliament on Monday, Hovhannisyan summarized the opposition's performance during the previous parliamentary term.

According to her, opposition lawmakers delivered 384 oral questions and nearly the same number of parliamentary speeches, introduced 53 legislative initiatives, four draft resolutions, 13 draft statements and one parliamentary address. She also said opposition members participated in 162 official trips, including delegations with MPs from the ruling Civil Contract party.

Hovhannisyan said that opposition factions collectively received more than 600 million drams in bonuses in addition to their salaries. She said the Hayastan bloc received 488,086,470 drams, while the Pativ Unem alliance received 107,440,920 drams.

She also noted that one lawmaker from each opposition alliance left their parliamentary faction, became an independent MP and later aligned with the ruling team.

Hovhannisyan said the opposition assumed four leadership positions allocated to it by law, including one deputy speakership and the chairmanships of three standing committees. She wrote that one officeholder was removed by the ruling majority, two resigned in 2022 and the remaining post, the chairmanship of the Human Rights Committee, was reassigned to the ruling faction following legislative changes in 2024. She questioned whether those positions had proved to be effective political tools, concluding that they had not.

Hovhannisyan argued that the most significant measure of the previous five years is that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan remains in office after nearly nine years in power.

She said that fact alone should serve both as a political assessment of the opposition's previous performance and as a guide for what should not be repeated during the new parliamentary term.

"The opposition is not a statistician of the government's actions and mistakes," Hovhannisyan wrote. "It must be an independent political actor with its own political agenda, capable of producing political results and taking responsibility for them."

She also called on the public to stop evaluating the opposition based on applause, emotional rhetoric or forceful speeches, arguing that politics should be judged by outcomes rather than impressions.

Looking ahead to the 2026-2031 parliamentary term, Hovhannisyan said every action taken by the opposition should be measured against a single standard: whether it brings the opposition closer to achieving its stated political objectives.