WORKING DISCUSSIONS ON DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO THE ELECTORAL CODE OF RA BEGIN IN NA
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Sept 28 2006
On September 27 in the National Assembly the discussions on the
draft amendments to the RA Electoral Code with participation of
representatives of the NA political forces, experts of the Venice
Commission, OSCE/ODIHR, international organizations, CEC (Central
Electoral Commission) representatives and experts began.
Mr. Tigran Torosyan, the President of the National Assembly, opening
the sitting, thanked the experts for the readiness to participate
in the discussions on the issues. There was no agreement reached
among political forces regarding these issues. The NA President
mentioned that the core issue of the discussions of the amendments
to the Electoral Code presented by the political forces was the
joint conclusion of the representatives of the Venice Commission and
OSCE/ODIHR. As a result of discussions, an agreement was reached to
include in the draft the proposals of the joint conclusion of the
Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, excluding the items 28, 42-45 and
56. There were issues in the joint conclusion regarding the procedure
of the two processes. One of the issues concerned the voting procedure,
which is rather complicated according to experts. The other issue
concerned the appeal procedure. As a result of discussion with the
authors of the draft, it was decided to include all proposals in
the draft leaving as a matter of discussion the above-mentioned six
items and the two procedures. Mr. T. Torosyan mentioned that the draft
was sent to the experts a week ago, where the adopted proposals were
taken into consideration. The NA President expressed a hope that the
discussions will be held in conditions of mutual consent.
During the sitting the discussions on draft amendments to the RA
Electoral Code were held on the order of appealing the decisions,
actions and idleness of the electoral commissions, the issues of
the guarantees of the observers’ rights, obligations and activity,
the responsibility for the breaches of the electoral legislation,
the recall of the members of the Electoral Commission, the training
of the members of the electoral commissions.
The discussions of the draft amendments to the Electoral Code will
be continued on September 28.