Electoral Code resembles a patient at death's door
The Electoral Code of Armenia has not one iota of legitimacy, Heritage faction MP Armen Martirosyan said during today's discussion on the theme "Changes to the Electoral Code: New Guarantees for Free and Fair Elections."
Representatives of the National Assembly, government officials, representative of international and national organizations and media were invited to the event.
"The Electoral Code was supposed to provide equal footing to the opposition and government before the elections. Setting the rules of the game without the direct participation of opposition is inadmissible," said Martirosyan.
The opposition factions -Heritage and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun - were not involved in the activity of parliamentary group dealing with the amendments to the EC.
Vahan Hovhannisyan, Head of ARF-Dashnaktsutyun faction, says they were invited to the group after the completion of the work.
"Our participation was rather formal: we could only make some minor and cosmetic changes, i.e. put commas and the like, therefore we refused," said Hovhannisyan.
Dashnaktsutyun presented to the National Assembly a package of alternative proposals. The main proposal related to the publication of voters' list immediately after the elections. The parliamentary majority rejected the proposal, arguing that it violates the right to privacy. The Venice Commission also disapproved of the proposal.
"The experts of Venice Commission are not the authors of the Tetraevangelion, are they," said Vahan Hovhannisyan comparing the Electoral Code with a patient who is at death's door.
"Two doctors offer the dying patient their recipes. One of them says only his remedy will save the patient, while the other argues that it is dangerous for health and it is better to let him die," said Hovhannisyan.
The discussion was attended by representatives of various public organizations whose proposals were also ignored by the legislative body.
Avetik Ishkhanian, chairman of the Helsinki committee, noted that starting 2005 international organizations have repeatedly criticized elections in Armenia, regarding them as unfair and fraudulent.
Transparency International Anti-corruption Center has monitors all elections in Armenia and revealed shortcomings related to the control and revision service. "The service turned out to have a formal character and we suggested ensuring its objectivity," said Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Executive Director of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center.
Chairman of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian noted it is important to find such a legislative solution that would ensure civil society's participation in electoral processes to achieve maximum transparency in this process.
