National Assembly “Tsarukyan” faction MP Sergey Bagratyan suggests that the discussions over the Electoral Code needed to be carried out in two different formats: parliamentary and extra-parliamentary, so that more mobile work could be done.
Mr. Bagratyan reminded journalists that no decision was made in the session of the Commission on Amendments to the Electoral Code that was held in the National Assembly, which was defined as a pre-session, the first session will be held on July 4, with the participation of 3 MPs from four factions.
Referring to the proposed changes, he noted: “The first change is to adopt proportional electoral system for 100 percent, we should exclude the rating system. There were a lot of problems in the April 2, 2017 election, in the sense that vote buying and administrative levers were applied. Excluding this system, we will reduce the risks. The second thesis is the exclusion of double voting. Unfortunately, in this case we have a lot of complications in the sense of time that we might not be able to solve before the extraordinary elections. We offer an alternative: to avoid double voting through fingerprints. We consider active and passive electoral lists to be important. The voter lists are active when the number of participants is recorded in terms of their presence in Armenia, the electorate is passive which has registration in the Republic of Armenia but lives abroad. Combining the two lists, we can exclude the possibility of voting instead of absent voters”.
Sergey Bagratyan assured that the main goal of the amendments is to hold fair and transparent elections: “If we succeed in accomplishing this important issue, we will have a country of new quality and we can make progress. At this point, although the inner political reality is such that while the current government has a nationwide vote, in the classical sense, we still have no government and classical institutions, because a parliament should be elected and a government should be formed. The current governing system is transitional. If it is possible to separate the three wings of the power, the judiciary, the executive and the legislature, it will be effective”.
In response to the question whether when it will be possible to hold extraordinary parliamentary elections Mr. Bagratyan said: “The Prime Minister announced it to be in November, after which the calculations showed that it could take up to one year. Later there was a leak of information as if it is supposed to be held in September. According to our logic and analysis, I think that we may manage to have a new ready Electoral Code in March-April and to be ready to hold extraordinary elections. EU partners stress that after the amendments it takes from six months to one year for the forces to get adapted to the new electoral system. If changes are made in September and sent to the Venice Commission, it still will need time to be accepted by the international organizations and not to create problems”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
