Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR welcome amendments to Armenian electoral code
YEREVAN, April 23. /ARKA/.. The Council of Europe’s body of constitutional legal experts, the Venice Commission, and the OSCE/ODIHR have published an urgent joint opinion on amendments to the Electoral Code and related legislation of Armenia.
'Having examined the conformity of the procedure of their development, as well as the conformity of the amendments with international standards, the opinion concludes that the package is to be broadly welcomed, as it addresses the majority of previous recommendations, but improving these amendments is still recommended.
The opinion was requested by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia on 4 March 2021 and is based inter alia on a series of video conferences with representatives of state and non-state actors.
On 1 April 2021, the National Assembly adopted a first set of amendments to the Electoral Code concerning the abolition of the territorial candidate lists with 82 votes in favour and no abstentions or votes against. The signing of the amendments into law is pending.
The proposal abolishes the territorial candidate lists, establishing a proportional electoral system only based on a nationwide constituency, thus reducing regional inequalities in the value of the ballot, the opinion reads.
The Venice Commission and the ODIHR note with satisfaction that the reform went through broad consultations among different political forces, civil society and expert community and took place within an adequate timeframe, assuring the widest possible support to the amendments.'
The last two parliamentary elections in Armenia were held under the so-called rating system when the voters voted not only for parties and electoral blocs but also individual candidates nominated by them.
According to critics, this system allowed wealthy candidates from then ruling Republican Party of Armenia to earn votes through vote bribes and abuse of their administrative resources.
Apart from eliminating the rating system the changes to the election law proposed by the ruling majority also set a new threshold for parties and party blocs.
The threshold for political parties is 4%, for blocs of two parties - 8%, for blocs of three parties - 9% and for blocks of four or more parties - 10%.
The changes also propose that the mandatory number of political forces represented in parliament be raised from the current three to four. The size of the electoral deposit for parties running in the parliamentary elections will also be reduced to 7.5 million drams, while for party blocs it is to double to 15 million drams.
The early parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled to take place on June 20, --0--
