Republican Party of Armenia

By the decision of the RA NA Speaker Galust Sahakyan, under Article 70 of the RA Constitution, at the initiative of the RA Government, on June 27 at 12:00 an extraordinary session of the RA National Assembly was convened by the initiator’s established agenda. By the decision of the National Assembly on the first day of the extraordinary session three sittings with one and a half hour duration will be convened, the duration of the first interval is one hour, and the second interval is half an hour. Beginning from the second day every day four sittings with one and a half hour duration will be convened, the beginning of the sittings is 11 a.m., and the duration of every interval is half an hour. A decision was also made, according to which, the debate of the draft law envisaging amendments to the RA Electoral Code and the enclosed package of bills in the second reading will be held during 24 years after the first reading.

The parliament in the first reading debated the draft law on Amendments to the RA Electoral Code, the legislative package on Amendments to the RA Electoral Code and on Amendment to the RA law on Legal Acts, which presented the RA Minister-Chief of Staff of the Government Davit Harutyunyan.

Davit Harutyunyan noted that part of the amendments under proposal will enter into force on the 10th day following the day of the official publication.

The key speaker answered the deputies’ various questions. The deputies’ questions on the package referred to the formation of the voters’ register, the specification of the electoral polls, the identity cards, the steps to be taken for the rise of the trust towards the electoral processes, the efficiency of the negotiating format debates, the video shooting process, the preliminary electronic registration system with the voters’ fingerprints and the political, legal and technical risks of the Electoral Code in general.

The NA deputies Tevan Poghosyan, Edmon Marukyan, Aram Manukyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Margarit Yesayan, Mikayel Melkumyan, Naira Zohrabyan, Rubik Hakobyan, ELinar Vardanyan, Vahe Enfiajyan, Hovhannes Margaryan, Mher Shahgeldyan, Zaruhi Postanjyan expressed their views on the legislative package.

The RA NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov delivered an extraordinary speech, noting that everybody aims at having better Electoral Code. According to the NA Deputy Speaker, the adoption of the Electoral Code was a result of the unprecedented consolidation, which was sufficient to the political majority – the public, the international organizations, the opposition political forces that the majority of the parliament is for the Electoral Code. However to Eduard Sharmazanov’s observation, taking into consideration the fact that the rise of the mechanism of trust and the level of electoral processes’ trust was important for the political majority, the debates continued. Highlighting the signed Agreement as a result of debates over the Electoral Code, Eduard Sharmazanov qualified it as a historical document and noted that the reforms will have a positive result.

The debate on the draft law will resume on June 28.