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“I do not recall an adoption of a draft legislation provided that donor funding is obtained,” MP Rubik Hakobyan told at an extraordinary session held at Armenia’s National Assembly on June 27. The debates were devoted to the amendment to the RA new draft Electoral Code.

Hakobyan raised a rhetorical question whether international practice exists to adopt a law conditioned solely with donors’ funding.

To remind, political forces of Armenia finalized an agreement to introduce amendments to the Armenia’s Electoral Code. One provision of the legislation requires technical tools to be installed for preregistration ahead of parliamentary elections. The overall funds for the new system comprise 16 million EUR. The government is due to negotiate with donor organizations to loan the funds.

Davit Harutyunyan, Chief of RA Government Staff, who acted as the main reporter of the legislation, noted that the current budget does not assign the required funding.

“If we manage to get financial sources, we will proceed with the adoption of the legislation, otherwise, the amendments will be rejected,” Harutyunyan noted, adding any legal act is conditioned with scheduled deadlines and measures and the legislation under consideration envisages such measures.

The parliamentarian next asked whether any precedent was recorded in Armenia when a law was adopted based not on the corresponding budget allocation but depending on available donor funding.