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On February 23, the RA NA Deputy Speaker, the Head of the RA NA Delegation Hermine Naghdalyan, the members of the Delegation Naira Zohrabyan, Mikayel Melkumyan and Samvel Farmanyan met with the members of the Delegation of the observation mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who on February 21-24 will observe the preparatory phase of the upcoming parliamentary elections in the RA. The Constitutional reforms made in Armenia and the improvement of the RA new Electoral Code.

Welcoming the members of the delegation, the RA NA Deputy Speaker Hermine Naghdalyan highlighted the role of the observation missions during the elections and referenda going on in the republic. She has noted that the upcoming parliamentary election is the first, which will be held by the new RA Constitution and the Electoral Code. Mrs Naghdalyan has noted that the goal of the RA authorities is to hold legal, fair and free elections, and the reforms made give such opportunity, and the majority of them were implemented with the mutual consent of the representatives of power, opposition and civil society. In this context, she has noted that the RA Electoral Code has undergone radical changes, as a result of which, the holding of the double voting, different electoral fraud and “the winner gets everything, the loser nothing” principle will be excluded. According to her, the serious amendments will promote the overcoming of the lack of confidence among the public, and the electoral fighting of the political forces will be competitive and full of content. Mrs Naghdalyan presented in detail the amendments of principle made in the Electoral Code, talked about the proportional electoral system, the transition to parliamentary administration, the rights reserved to the opposition, etc. It has been underlined that more transparent mechanisms of control of the electoral process, digital systems of the voters’ identification and registration have been invested, and the responsibility for the electoral fraud has become strict. Advancing the demand of the opposition, the lists of the voters, who took part in the election, will be issued.

The Head of PACE Delegation Liliane Maury Pasquier informed that they already had a number of meetings, where dissatisfaction was heard on some articles of the Electoral Code, particularly, on the rating electoral system. “Is the availability of this system justified in a small country like Armenia?” the guests were interested.

In terms of this and other questions the Head of the RA NA PAP Faction Naira Zohrabyan, the member of the RA NA PAP Faction Mikayel Melkumyan and the member of the RA NA RPA Faction Samvel Farmanyan expressed their views.

Naira Zohrabyan particularly touched upon the amendments made in the Electoral Code and emphasized the provision of making videos of the electoral process and the publication of the lists of the voters, who took part in the voting, but consider inadmissible the investment of the rating electoral system, which to her conviction, is favourable and dangerous for electoral fraud.

To Mikayel Melkumyan’s assessment, the new Electoral Code is one more step from the previous one, but as a result of its implementation, problems will emerge related to the publication of the lists.

Samvel Farmanyan has referred to the investment of the rating electoral system and has noted that, certainly, that system is not the best, and however, it will give opportunity to be elected candidates from the marzes enjoying the trust of the population. He also emphasized the role of the observation missions and underlined the position of the power to hold legal elections in accordance with the standards of democracy.