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The draft legislation on Political Parties is debated at the extraordinary sitting of Armenia’s National Assembly on Monday. Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan acting as the main reporter on the legislative initiative presented the key provisions, namely the regulation of the membership and necessary number of members to associate in political parties.

According to the current law, the political party shall be obliged to have no less than 200 members at the moment of state registration and must have not less than 2000 not later than six months upon the state registration. The proposed amendments envisage having no less than 100 members at the moment of state registration with no less than 1000 members after six months upon the state registration. Pursuant to the draft legislation, state registration of a political party shall be carried out six months at the latest after the party convention.

As presented by Hovhannisyan, after the constitutional reforms political parties are ascribed a pivotal role in the political scene of the country, necessitating relevant amendments and supplements to the existing legislation.

During the debates MP Aghvan Vardanyan raised the issue of the financial self-sufficiency of political parties, saying parties in power possess more resources to disseminate their ideologues and programs, while the funds from the state budget are insufficient for other parties to ensure their financial self-sufficiency especially for keeping subdivisions in the regions.

“In number of developed states the legislation enables parties to have foundations that are not governed by parties and have a mission to disseminate leftist, rightist or centric ideology among the population. In doing so those foundations receive state allocations. If we really want to have a robust parliamentary system, these issues should be addressed despite the lack of budgetary funding,” Vardanyan noted.

In response, Minister Hovhannisyan expressed readiness to receive proposals from politicians and NGO representatives as well as conduct relevant discussions. However, the minister highlighted the need for a differentiated approach to the issue, instead of a fixed amount suggesting the idea of funding political parties for meeting certain criteria.

In her words there should be a clear differentiation about a party’s operation and role in the political field with follow-up decision on the amount of funding.