Making changes in the Election Code on the eve of elections seems to have become a tradition. The original law adopted on February 5, 1999 has been changed 13 times. The latest changes were adopted by the National Assembly last month - May 26, and came into effect on June 6.    

Improving Election Code before parliamentary and presidential election is perhaps the requirement of international structures and as mentioned by NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan, "proposals of a number of international organizations, Venice Commission and non-government organizations were taken into consideration." Principal proposals made by two oppositional factions in Parliament - ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) and Heritage, were basically rejected for different reasons.  

How will the election committees be formed?

The new law has changed the order of forming election committees. Three of the seven members of the Central Election Committee (CEC) are nominated by the Human Rights Defender, two members are nominated by the Chamber of Advocates and the Court of Cassation. Nominees have to be approved by the President of Armenia. Authors of the law assure that CEC will consist of "professionals" only.

The Central Election Committee forms territorial election committees, and parliamentary factions have a right to propose candidates only in local election committees and irrespective of the size of their faction, they will be represented equally.        

In ARF's opinion, the ratio is all the same in favor of the authorities. Davit Harutyunyan, Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on State-and Legal Issues, does not agree with this viewpoint and insists that the distribution of pro-governmental and oppositional parties in the parliament is changeable.   

Stepan Safaryan, leader of Heritage faction, considers this concept quite risky. "Later when the opposition accuses the authorities in falsifying elections, the authorities will refer to lower level committees that are formed with the participation of political forces but in a non-balanced way. They will justify themselves saying that the higher committees formed by them are professional. However, it is clear for everyone that these committees will be consisted of people who will professionally "draw" the results of elections".

Armenian National Congress too complains that "the extra-parliamentary opposition that dictates the political agenda in the country is absolutely deprived of the legislative opportunity of being represented in any committee".    

Only citizens of RA will be nominated

Conditions of nominating candidates have changed. Candidates for deputies and president at the moment of nomination have to be only citizens of RA. This clause has been added for those having dual citizenship taking into consideration the fact that being a citizen of another country implies being subject to laws of another country.

Oppositional parties call for reserving in the Election Code a 100 per cent proportional principle for forming the parliament. "Our research show that the majority format absolutely does not correspond to its essence. Moreover, the most active deputies in NA are the ones elected by proportional vote", says ARF faction member Ara Nranyan. This proposal was rejected for     allegedly distancing deputies from electors.

The law provides equal opportunities also for pre-election campaigning of candidates or political parties; local authorities will provide areas for campaigning free of charge, tariffs for political advertizing on TV and radio will be restricted.

Co-author of Election Code Davit Harutyunyan says that the new law also touches upon the issue of election campaigning in the pre-election period under the cover of charity (medical, social and other programs). "Charity organizations whose names could resemble certain candidates or political parties, have no right to do charity during the pre-election campaign period", Harutyunyan says.

According to the new Election Code, all resolutions of CEC will be posted in the official site of the committee (www.elections.am) and be accessible for the public. Nominated candidates, political parties and alliances will also have to post their election programs in the site.

The stamp print will disappear in 12 hours

An expert from the Venice Committee commented that stamping passports of citizens who participated in elections, something done during the last elections, is a gross violation of human rights. According to the new law, a temporary stamp will be put in the passport that will oxidize in 12 hours.       

Requirements are higher for local observers. They have to pass professional courses and get appropriate certificates. Parliamentary opposition is against this point since observers' mission is done on a voluntary principle, and it is not legally mandatory in any country.

The law also stipulates to publish the list and the total number of voters a month before the election day, in a 10-day interval and a day before the elections. ARF offered in its alternative draft to post at the election districts right the next day of elections the registers with signatures of persons that participated in elections which will allow to control the votes made instead of persons absent from Armenia or dead.         

"During the last elections we had cases when the number of voters at night hours grew by tens or even hundreds of thousands. Providing publicity for voter lists and counting voting envelopes immediately after elections could prevent that. We suggested to fix the number of citizens who participated in elections all over Armenia for 22:00, and that figure could not be changed", Ara Nranyan says.

This offer was rejected for the reason that it violates the principle of secrecy of elections. Instead, "meeting desires of opposition", the ruling coalition stated in the law that the proxies have a right to demand an extract from the register on the number of citizens who participated in elections confirmed by signatures of the committee chairman and secretary as well as its stamp.

The proposal of video filming at election districts on state level was rejected.

"The state might be very vulnerable because many technical issues could arise, and the opposition could announce them as deliberation and accuse authorities; so in my opinion the decision made is good", says Naira Zohrabyan, member of Prosperous Armenia faction, co-author of Election Code.

The law stipulates that the whole process of voting can be video-filmed by everyone - proxies, observers or reporters, except for cases when the principle of secrecy of voting is violated. The process of vote counting too can be filmed by the participants of the process but here, ARF and Heritage believe, problems may arise. 

"First, it is technically very difficult for individuals to organize such filming. Besides those who do it will not be able to do their direct responsibilities - control the counting process. There may also arise a problem which of the films to rely on when disputing the results", Ara Nranyan says. Stepan Safaryan considers this avoiding responsibility.           

Political will is the most important thing

"We can endlessly change and supplement Election Code, but the most important thing for free and fair elections is the political will", Naira Zohrabyan says.

"Perhaps everybody remembers that we had the most free and fair elections in Armenia (also by assessment of international observers) when we had the most defective and imperfect Election Code", reminds Naira Zohrabyan. She expresses her hope that the changed Election Code will to the maximum close the loopholes of the law that were used, in her words, "to do somebody a bad turn".  

The opposition too thinks that political will is crucial in holding fair and transparent elections. "Unfortunately, an Election Code has been adopted that contains very serious risks, and we are concerned about that. One can say that the future parliamentary elections are endangered since the first sign that the authorities will not hold free and fair elections is already given by adopting this Election Code", Stepan Safaryan from Heritage faction says.    

Mary Alexanyan

Source - www.hra.am

Photo - www.slaq.am