Armenian ruling party's candidate elected as SJC member

The Armenian parliament held a minute's silence to pay tribute to the catastrophic Spitak earthquake victims on its 34th anniversary at the start of a plenary sitting on Wednesday.

Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, who has returned from Qatar, gave the floor to Chairman of the Counting Committee Narek Babayan, who announced the results of a secret vote for a member of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) overseeing Armenian courts on Tuesday.

Babayan said all 75 MPs who took part in the vote backed Hayk Grigoryan, a former Investigation Committee chair who had been nominated to become a SJC member by the ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary faction.

He signed for the text of the oath after swearing in.