REGULATION AND LIMITATION CAN BE COMBINED

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| 11:43:24 | 14-05-2005 | Politics |

After every state elections held in Armenia the representatives of
different parties insist that the results were shuffled. If the law
“On Parties” functioned in Armenia after the elections several known
partied would be liquidated.

Today any party is obliged to take part in the elections two
consecutive times. If the party does not garner the essential 5% it is
subject to dismission. Once the initiators of the falsifications are
punished in Armenia people would trust the law “On Parties”. However
to date the trust is absent and there is even an opinion that this
law conflicts with the Constitution, accfording to which the parties
are formed freely and contribute to the formation and expression of
the political will of the people.

Deputy Justice Minister Tigran Mukuchyan holds a different
opinion. “The Constitution established fundamental principle, the
legal basis for the citizens to express their political will while the
regulations are fixed in the law. The law does not bar people from
uniting, it just established certain standards. I think the clauses
of our law correspond to the international and European standards”,
he says.

One of the standards is the humber of the party members. If it reduces
the party should be dismissed. However nothing of the kind has happened
in Armenia so far. After the adoption of the law “On Parties” over 110
parties functioned in Armenia, today the number makes 68. The Justice
Minsitry brought in suits with a demand to dismiss 42 parties due to
their inconsistency with the law.

The parties functioning today record of a great number of their
members. If these figures are summed the total membership of all
the parties will exceed the number of population fixed by the latest
census.

“I am convinced that there are parties, which do not keep the count
of their members. However we are not empowered to undertake any
checks. Thus, there are no facts and I am as an official consider it
inappropriate to present any assessments”, Tigran Mukuchyan says.

Lena Badeyan