What dress to put on for the elections?

The two bills of the EC (Electoral Code) were discussed; the first one was assessed as “radical”, and the second one as “conservative”

 Yesterday the parliament continued to discuss the coalition and the alternative, Dashnaktsutyun bills of the “Electoral Code”. The NA Deputy Speaker Samvel Nikoyan stated that he would like the working group to improve the discussions to the degree that the opposition would not be against the coalition bill, as it had already been five years before. Viktor Dallakyan stated that the coalition bill was “conservative”, and the Dashnaktsutyun bill was “radical”. An independent MP Tigran Torosyan expressed an idea that the amendments put forward by the coalition could not lead to new electoral qualities. According to the MP, one of the reasons of the bad elections is the human factor, the other one is the lack of knowledge of the entrusted persons and the members of the committee. Armen Rostomyan pointed out that so far, no EC had mentioned “pouring”, but they poured, there had been no mention about “carousel”, but they whirled, there had been no mention about “drawing”, but they “drew”. According to Armen Rostomyan they suggest to form the electoral committees focusing on the impartiality of the decisions made. The MP pointed out that there is an Armenian electoral phenomenon, i.e. “When the elections are over they announce a certain number of voters, but a few hours after the election, after the nightfall they announce a different number, it turns out that in Armenia people also vote at night.” On behalf of the PAP, the NA Deputy Speaker Samvel Balasanyan stated that he was against the 100% proportional elections and gave importance to the majority elections as an MP elected thrice through that system, “Whatever the EC is like good elections can be held if there is a political will”. The MPs elected through the majority system from the coalition member political forces as one man praised the majority system and their arguments were the following, “Whom should the voter call or write a letter, whom does he have to ask for paying his land tax, to solve his problems with water etc.?” Probably Koryun Nahapetyan was the only one who spoke against the majority system. A bit later the ARF MP Artsvik Minasyan expressed her gratitude to not only him, but also to the independent MPs Viktor Dallakyan and Tigran Torosyan.

The RPA faction leader Galust Sahakyan was against shooting the electoral areas and his argument was the following, “Brides in villages have to think about what to put on for the elections, because they might be unexpectedly shot with a camera and shown on TV. This is a repression against the voter and at the same time it makes those who tries to rig be more careful.” The Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan responding to the questions put forward, one of which was, “At the end of the day, who is responsible for holding the elections?” said, “Whatever the way of forming the committee is, the one who is responsible for the elections is the government.” Then mentioned both of the bills at issue are “a step towards the democratic, fair and transparent elections. I do not oppose these two bills to each other and the fact that the government is against one bill and for the other does not mean that the propositions mentioned in the other one do not have the right to exist. Everyone just sees the solution of those issues from his own perspective.”

The co-reporter of both bills Ara Simonyan does not agree with the statement that good elections can be held with bad code, as some of the MPs claimed, because, in his opinion, the existing omissions can be used for electoral infringements. The ARF MP Artsvik Minasyan opposing the MPs who are for the majority system, said that the majority system was not for the MP to repair the roof, to distribute allowances and to solve other social issues and reminded that the NA mandate is not for solving everyday problems, “It is mandatory today to switch to the 100% proportional system, in order the political system to mature, the country to move to a new field of development, and also the sexual representation in that political system should be appropriate.”