ARMENIAN WOMEN MUST BE MORE ACTIVE IN COUNTRY’S POLITICAL LIFE, NA VICE-SPEAKER SAYS

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 13 2006

YEREVAN, March 13. /ARKA/. Armenian women must be more actively
involved in the country’s political life, Vice-Speaker of the RA
Parliament Vahan Hovhanesyan stated at a conference “Women’s role in
the formation of civil society.”

According to him, Armenian women must enjoy freedom ensured by our
society and actively join political parties. “Armenia’s legislation
grants women full right to take part in the country’s political life,
but many of them are not yet psychologically ready to exercise this
right,” Hovhanesyan said.

He also pointed out the importance of more women becoming
parliamentarians. He added that the reason why the number of women
parliamentarians is not large is the parliamentary election system
in Armenia.

“Many women find it difficult to run for Parliament by the
single-mandate election system, because election campaigns require huge
funds. Nor can they run for Parliament by the party-ticket system,
because in this case they must be members of political parties,”
Hovhanesyan said.

Only seven women are presently members of the Armenian Parliament:
Alvard Petrosyan (ARF Dashnaktsutyun), Hermine Nahdalyan (Republican
Party), Yehine Bisharyan (Law-Governed Country Party), Hripsime
Avetisyan (United Worker’s Party), as well as Emma Khudabashyan,
Hranush Hakobyan and Armenuhi Hovhannisyan (all without party
affiliation).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress