Armenian parliament reopens draft amendments to Electoral Code at  extraordinary meeting

ArmInfo.On October 29 at an extraordinary meeting, the National Assembly of Armenia again discusses the draft amendments in the Electoral Code and in a package  of related documents. On October 22, at the extraordinary meeting of  the National Assembly, the draft did not receive the necessary number  of votes.

The document submitted by the government, being a  constitutional law, was to be adopted by 3/5 of the votes of  deputies. Meanwhile, only 56 MPs voted in favor of adopting a package  with three "against".

This time, the ''Tsarukyan Bloc'' faction initiated the amendments.  The representative of the faction Gevorg Poghosyan stressed that 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 formation of coalitions is  given 10 days instead of 6 at the present time. Passing threshold  will decrease by one percent, with the result that for batches it  will be 4%, and for blocs 6%. 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 from at least 4 political forces. Gevorg  Poghosyan also said that the size of the electoral pledge is  decreasing, which instead of 10 million AMD will make 7.5 million  drams. The representation of women in parliament should be at least  30% instead of the current 25%, four places will be reserved for  representatives of national minorities. Up to 40% of non-party people  can be represented in party lists instead of 30% at present.

The rules of election campaigning have been slightly changed, and  ample opportunities for campaigning at the expense of public  resources have been given; free airtime has increased, it has been  established that television debates should be held, and at least one  of them should be at the level of the first list numbers.

A norm was also established according to which the employees of the  Armenian armed forces should have more opportunities to get  acquainted with the electoral programs, including, they should be  able to watch TV debates.