ArmInfo. The government of Armenia approved the amendments to the constitutional Electoral Code and in a package of related laws at a meeting on October 16.
As RA Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan noted at the meeting of the RA Government, according to the amendments, the elections to the National Assembly of Armenia will be held exclusively on proportional lists, the current rating system of elections is completely excluded. "The threshold for entry will decrease by one percent, as a result it will be 4% for parties and 6% for blocs. It is also planned that the minimum number of political forces that have entered the parliament, regardless of the threshold, will be 4, not 3." That is, the parliament will be formed of at least 4 political forces, "Zeinalyan stressed, adding that the size of the electoral pledge is decreasing, which instead of 10 million drams will make 7.5 million drams. The Minister also noted that the rules for election campaigning were slightly changed. "More opportunities for campaigning at the expense of public resources are given - free time on the air has increased, it has been established that there should be TV debates, and at least one of them should be at the level of the first numbers of the list. According to another provision, servicemen of the armed forces of Armenia should have more opportunities to familiarize themselves with election programs, including, they should be able to watch debates.
The minister also noted that some reforms are envisaged in those norms that concern election fraud. It should be noted that the amendments will be considered at an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on October 22. This decision was also made at a meeting of the executive body on December 16.