Your trusted source

Armenia’s National Assembly adopted amendments to the Electoral Code reached among country’s ruling and opposition forces in the so-called 4+4+4 format.   105 parliamentarians voted for the changes, with only 6 voting against.  

“The current format was initiated by ANC (Armenian National Congress), joined by other political forces. We support the amendments, which not necessarily means we approve the whole Electoral Code,” Gagik Jhangiryan, member of ANC stated ahead of the voting.

“Unity”, representatives of another opposition party, present at the voting, supported the amendments as well.

“We are voting for the changes, since an agreement has been reached over concrete issues,” representative of the party Elinar Vardanyan said.

To remind, after long discussion sand negotiations, political agreement was reached among the main political forces of Armenia over introducing amendments to the country’s Electoral Code. Opposition parties ANC, Prosperous Armenia, and Rule of Law together with coalition forces of the Republican Party and ARF-Dashnaktutyun participated in the negotiations.

One provision of the legislation requires technical tools to be applied for preregistration ahead of parliamentary elections, namely the inking of voters’ fingers to avoid multiple voting. The overall funds for the new system comprise 16 million EURs. 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, earlier noted that the current budget does not assign the required funding.