DIRECTOR OF OSCE’S OFFICE FOR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
National Assembly of RA
Oct 25 2007
Armenia
On October 24 Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly
of the Republic of Armenia received the delegation led by Mr. Christian
Strohal, Director of OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR). Ambassador Mr. Sergey Kapinos, the head of OSCE
Yerevan Office attended he meeting.
At the meeting the sides discussed the reforms of the Electoral
Code and the importance of recording the successes stipulated in the
parliamentary elections during the presidential elections. Mt. Tigran
Torosyan, NA President, touching upon the joint effective work
through many years, stressed the continuation of the cooperation
for the improvement of the electoral processes. The NA President
noted that the draft of the amendments to the Electoral Code had
been put into circulation, and the parliament has a difficult task
to make amendments till the presidential elections during the short
period of time, already at the beginning of November. Mr. Torosyan
expressed regret that the OSCE/ODIHR conclusion was presented late,
which also became a reason for the delay of the draft, and in that way
that has become a tradition, there is no possibility to send the draft
for expertise. However, there are also no deep amendments, and there
have been rather continuous and voluminous debates with the experts
that there is likely any provision to put the reforms under doubt.
The NA President referred to the report regarding also the
parliamentary elections, noting that 4 months had passed but it was
not possible to avoid the wrong formulations, in particular, those on
which there are proposals but they aren’t in the Code. Mr. Torosyan
expressed regret that according to an agreement, there was no
opportunity primarily to get introduced with the draft of the report
in order to exclude the mistakes made in working order, and the sides
would have beneficial situation during cooperation.
Mr. Christian Strohal, Director of OSCE/ODIHR Office considered
the goal of his visit the deepening of cooperation, following the
process of the observations made during the previous elections and
the preparation of the upcoming elections. Recording the success of
the parliamentary elections, which has been a serious step forward,
MR. Strohal stressed their continuation in case of presidential
elections. As he assessed, it’s very important that the good law
is carried out in a good way, for this purpose it’s necessary to
increase the role of the National Assembly in the aspect of the
oversight of the administration of the law. Mr. Strohal stressed the
necessary preparation of the members of the electoral commissions
for the success of the elections, the organisation of the process of
the voting, the creation of equal opportunities for the candidates
through mass media at the pre-electoral period.
Mr. Tigran Torosyan reminded that as a result of constitutional reforms
the citizens got an opportunity to apply to the Constitutional Court
and the experience of the past one and a half year testifies to
the fact that it is really a functioning mechnaism, which created
the National Assembly in the aspect of fulfilling the oversight of
implementing the law. In the aspect of administering the law, the
citizens’ full legal awareness was also stressed. It was noted that
a series of remarks on the previous elections by the suggesting
amendments to the Electoral were eliminated. Touching upon the
assistance to the works of the National Assembly, Mr. Torosyan
stressed the importance of giving a new quality to the cooperation,
as all preconditions for that have already been created.