Your trusted source

“Debates over the draft Electoral Code were unprecedented in their length, formats and phases,” MP Tevan Poghosyan stated at the extraordinary session over the Law on making amendments and supplements to the draft Electoral Code of Armenia held today in the National Assembly.

To his words, the Electoral Code should elaborate on the matters of the electoral system, serve to the main changes in the Constitution which set the political agenda for Armenia’s development, promote the development of political parties.

“The Electoral Code was supposed to be that tool to ensure the existence and the formation of a political vision. Regretfully, the Code under consideration is about something else. It is mostly about the development of a state to be driven through individual engines, through individuals who might have leverage in some places and our ability to move forward only due to their leadership. The political discourse, the ideology which was to serve as basis for the parties, is completely vanished with this Code,” lawmaker Poghosyan stressed.

“May this Code and our electoral system rest in peace,” Poghosyan concluded ironically.
Meanwhile, another opposition lawmaker Khachatur Kokobelyan expressed dissatisfaction with the introduced institute of complaint in the Code, which he labeled as blackmailing and retreat from democratic norms.

To his words, if a trustee in a polling station witnesses a voting fraud, he/she should think twice before filing a complaint, otherwise he/she may face 2-3 years of imprisonment.
If adopted, the parliamentarian vowed to dispute the provision in the Constitutional Court.