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On May 11, the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Hovhannes Sahakyan met with the Co-Rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee Alan Meale and Giuseppe Galati.

The Committee Chairman presented in detail to the guests the phases of debate on the Draft Electoral Code (EC). To his assessment, as a result of working numerous debates and meetings the submitted draft has been essentially reformed. Mr Sahakyan underlined that the authorities cooperated with the opposition and NGOs, by the proposal of the opposition debates were also organized in 4+4+4 format. As a result of that cooperation, numerous recommendations have already been in the Draft. He has underlined that the debates on the Draft EC still continue.

Talking about the 5 main recommendations made by the opposition Mr Sahakyan said that in terms of almost all recommendations either a mutual agreement was reached or an alternative variant was proposed by the power. He touched upon the voter’s registration features through an electronic system and presented details about that process. Noting about the participation in the elections by the citizens with one united document proposed by the opposition, the Committee Chairman has stated that they are not against that idea, but at this phase it is technically impossible.

At the guests’ request Mr Sahakyan submitted details about forming coalitions by the Draft EC, holding of the second phase of elections and the publication of the citizens’ list numbers.

Alan Meale highlighted the right organization of the electoral processes and the decrease of electoral fraud.