COALITION APPEARED IN A DIFFICULT SITUATION

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 20 2006

The National Assembly will spend all October 24 discussing the draft
Electoral Code. There are three drafts: Victor Dallakyan’s project
including a 100 proportional system of election, Arshak Sadoyan’s
project including electronic voting along with ballots, and the project
of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, the Republican Party and the United Labor
Party, which provides for 90 seats for the proportional system and
41 for the majority system.

After the speech of Republican Samvel Nikoyan on the previous day
on October 24 the Rafik Petrosyan seeks for courage. He invited
the political parties of the coalition not to break the political
agreement, placing the committee in a difficult situation every time.

"The committee should not be guided by arrangements between the
political forces but by what is good and what is bad for the nation,"
said Shavarsh Kocharyan. And Rafik Petrosyan announced that if the
political agreement is broken, the Republican will insist on keeping
the 56/76 correlation.

According to Rafik Petrosyan, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun broke the
agreement by avoiding to vote to the proposal on a 100 percent
proportional system of election, and the United Labor Party, which was
for this proposal. We expressed our free will, the political agreement
is a compromise, said Grigor Ghonjeyan, ULP. Rafik Petrosyan thinks the
majority system is necessary. First because the political parties are
not established and besides, "People need the support of the members
of parliament elected from constituencies."

Rafik Petrosyan, like the entire Republican Party, did not say what
should be done to make the political parties established and what
support he meant.

Instead, when Aram Sargsyan asked to define the borderline between
electoral corruption and charity, he said people who are poor
take the bribe. Which is the same as support. Rafik Petrosyan said
charity should not be connected with the elections and should not
pursue political aims. Otherwise, you can go to court, recommended
the doctor of law.

The committee led by Rafik Petrosyan did not discuss any of the four
main proposals of the Commission of Venice, including use of ink,
cancellation of election if there is only one candidate, the Central
Election Committee put in charge of printing and distribution of
ballots. The authors did not propose, was Rafik Petrosyan’s excuse.