Armenian experts lambast “democratic” amendments to Electoral Code

Arminfo
24 May 05

YEREVAN

The amendments to the Electoral Code are just amendments, not
democratic reforms, Vardan Pogosyan, representative of
Zhogovortavarutsyun [Democracy] public organization and the
international NGO Partnership in the Name of Open Society, has said at
a press conference.

As an example, he highlighted the amendment to the principle of
forming the central and district electoral commissions. According to
the amendments, the Armenian president has the right to appoint one
member of the electoral commissions as against three members under the
current Electoral Code. Another two members will be appointed by the
Court of Appeal and the People’s Deputy parliamentary faction, which
will later shift these powers to the board of judges.

At first sight, everything is more than democratic. However, in view
of the fact that our court system is far from being impartial, it
becomes clear that there is no talk about democracy here, Vardan
Pogosyan said.

In this connection, he expressed his bewilderment over the positive
conclusion concerning this amendment by experts of the Council of
Europe Venice Commission and the OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights, which described this amendment as
“clear evidence of the Armenian authorities’ efforts to achieve
political pluralism”.

Apparently, international experts did not read the amendments properly
and showed a purely mechanical approach – if the number of
presidential representatives drops, then there is democracy, Pogosyan
said.

Grayr Tovmasyan, a representative of the Zhogovortavarutsyn public
organization and the international NGO Partnership in the Name of Open
Society, who elaborated on this topic at the press conference, said
that the aforesaid amendment would allow 80 per cent of the 130
judges, or almost 70 per cent of the country’s judges, to interfere in
the work of the electoral commissions.

Apart from this, this is a grave violation of Point 98 of the Armenian
constitution. All this shows that the amendments to the Electoral Code
are diversions from the current electoral law and are aimed at
creating a new sophisticated mechanism of falsifications in future
elections, Tovmasyan believes.