The Parliament’s first sitting of the 2023 spring session was held with violations of a number of procedures. The Standing Bureau didn’t respect the agenda compilation procedure, while the legislative body didn’t obey the procedure for approving and publishing the agenda of the first sitting, said experts of Promo-LEX Association, IPN reports.
Under the Regulations, the agenda is posted on the Parliament’s website and is distributed to MPs at the start of the workweek. This time, the draft agenda was compiled in the evening of February 1 and was approved only for the February 2 sitting.
As a result of the made changes, the agenda consisted of 23 items. The PAS MPs formulated four proposals to supplement the agenda and three proposals to withdraw bills and they were all accepted. The three proposals of the BCS MPs were short of votes.
Decisional transparency regarding urgent examination was affected in the case of 12 bills adopted in the February 2 sitting, which is 52% of the total number. Five reports by permanent commissions and the relevant documents in the case of nine draft normative documents weren’t published on the day of the plenary sitting. The time limit for presenting the recommendations of the interested sides in the case of a bill wasn’t respected.
A number of 89 MPs were registered at the start of the sitting. The MPs of the Shor Party boycotted the sitting. In the 2022 autumn session, these also didn’t attend the sittings.
The BCS MPs left the sitting hall when the draft decision on the prolongation of the state of emergency was proposed for debates. The issue generated a fuss and the BCS and PAS MPs exchanged replies, with the BCS MPs blocking the central rostrum, which is banned by the Parliament’s Regulations and for which penalties are imposed. However, the Speaker didn’t propose and didn’t impose penalties for such violations.
In this connection, Promo-LEX called on the MPs to refrain from upsetting the order and interrupting the sittings, noting the chair of the sitting should ensure order and the observance of the Parliament’s Regulations.
