Alen Simonyan Makes False Claims About Edmon Marukyan's Votes

A heated argument occurred in the corridors of the National Assembly on May 13 between Vice-Speaker Alen Simonyan and Edmon Marukyan, the leader of the 'Enlightened Armenia' faction.

Following the incident, Alen Simonyan reaffirmed his earlier assertion that Edmon Marukyan collaborates with previous governments, citing Marukyan's votes in favor of all programs from the former administration as evidence. “The votes that directly concern Mikayel Minasian, the votes that are directly related to the previous authorities—I state that MP Edmon Marukyan voted in favor of all government programs,” Simonyan claimed, according to fip.am.

The Fact-Checking Platform attempted to verify these statements made by Simonyan, although it should be noted that it is unclear what Simonyan means by “votes that directly concern Mikayel Minasian,” as this is not measurable and is subject to interpretation.

It is worth recalling that just days earlier, Alen Simonyan had made a similar claim, asserting that Edmon Marukyan “votes for all budgets brought by Serzh Sargsyan’s governments and does not vote for our budgets.” However, the Fact-Checking Platform clarified that Simonyan's statement was not accurate, and Marukyan indeed voted against the budget presented by the previous administration.

Upon returning to Simonyan's most recent statement, it should be noted that since 2012, when Edmon Marukyan was elected to the National Assembly, the government has submitted two five-year programs (2012-2017 and 2017-2022) and five annual programs to the National Assembly. Edmon Marukyan voted in favor of the five-year program of Tigran Sargsyan’s government for 2012-2017, as well as the government programs of 2013 and 2014. During the era of the previous authorities, Marukyan voted against the government’s program from 2016 and the five-year program for 2017-2022.

After the revolution, on June 7, 2018, Marukyan voted in favor of the program presented by Nikol Pashinyan’s newly formed government, and it was only on the last, 2019 government program that the 'Enlightened Armenia' faction, led by Edmon Marukyan, voted against.

Thus, it can be stated that Alen Simonyan's claim that Edmon Marukyan voted in favor of the previous governments' programs is not true; moreover, Edmon Marukyan not only voted against several programs of the former administrations but also voted in favor of the government program presented in 2018 under the current government.