13:23, 1 April, 2021

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Bright Armenia (LHK) party continues to insist that an open-list proportional electoral system is the best for Armenia and it is wrong to abolish the preferential (ranked) voting method and hold early elections with the closed-list system.

Speaking at parliamentary hearings on the parliament majority-backed bill seeking to amend the electoral code, LHK lawmaker Gevorg Gorgisyan disapproved the initiative and said they propose an open proportional electoral system instead.

He admitted that the ranked voting system, the separations into districts potentially enable those having resources to exploit it to gain votes. “But depriving citizens from electing members of parliament, their representatives in parliament is fraught with even worse consequences. We’d have a parliament of button pushers,” he argued.

Gorgisyan insisted that an open proportional electoral system is the right system for Armenia and that it would contribute to strengthening democracy. He warned that otherwise the changes could lead to the political system’s degradation.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan