THOSE ELECTED SHOULD BE LITERATE
Support A1+!p>Before becoming a deputy or presidential contender the political figure should meet the requirement of the Election Code (EC). However the amendments to the EC do not provide for any new requirements for the candidates.
People's deputy group secretary Vahram Baghdasaryan holds the opinion that it is necessary to perfect the requirements and also fix higher education as an essential condition. «The education qualification is necessary. The candidates should be literate and educated people. Today people sometimes are ashamed of the deputies elected after seeing them on TV or reading press». Vahram Baghdasaryan in convinced that the candidates will not produce forged diplomas and says that a certain mechanism for the educational qualification should be worked out.
Orinats Yerkir faction member Samvel Balasanyan considers that those who intend to become head of the local self-government bodies should have higher education. However this suggestion was not approved by the experts of the Venice Commission, who succeeded in convincing the Armenian legislators that a head of the local self-government body can have secondary or special education.
Representative of the parliamentary opposition, Justice faction secretary Victor Dallakyan supports the demands of the acting EC to candidates. «I perceive that in Armenia everyone can get a document proving that he is an academician. There people who did not even go to school but they have diplomas. This problem cannot be solved in our society at present», he said. In his words, the EC is essential but not sufficient for securing free and fair elections.
Lena Badeyan
