Policy Alert #8 – European Institutions ‘Broadly Welcome’ Armenia’s Proposed Electoral Reform
On April 21, 2020, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and OSCE/ODIHR published their Draft Joint Urgent Opinion on an electoral reform legislative package in Armenia that is expected to pass ahead of the announced early parliamentary election. The Joint Urgent Opinion understands the urgency of eliminating district seats, noting that it followed […]
European Institutions ‘Broadly Welcome’ Armenia’s Proposed Electoral Reform
On April 21, 2020, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and OSCE/ODIHR published their Draft Joint Urgent Opinion on an electoral reform legislative package that is expected to pass ahead of the announced early parliamentary election. It has been a busy Bill C-894 makes wide changes to the Electoral Code, as well […]
Policy Alert #7 – Armenian Electoral Code Amended to Remove District Seats
On April 1, a marathon parliamentary session removed district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code. Eliminating district seats was the flagship policy in the electoral reform bill brought forward in October 2018 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s first government. That bill failed to attract enough votes to pass, but now it has finally been accomplished. What […]
Momentous reform – no more district seats
On April 1, 2021, a marathon parliamentary session removed district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code. Change doesn’t happen overnight… until it does. Eliminating district seats from Armenia’s Electoral Code was the flagship policy in the electoral reform bill brought forward in October 2018 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s first government. That bill failed to […]
Civil society calls for civilized pre-electoral campaign ahead of snap elections
Joint statement by Armenian CSOs, including EPDE members Transparency International Anticorruption Center Armenia and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor We, the undersigned representatives of civil society, are severely concerned about the hate speech and calls for violence, which are widespread in Armenia’s political landscape, and tend to be rising ahead of the snap parliamentary election. Problematic and […]
Early Parliamentary Elections Must Only Be Held Under Reformed Electoral Code
Joint statement by Armenian CSOs, including EPDE members Transparency International Anticorruption Center Armenia and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor The need to amend the Electoral Code, which leaves wide loopholes for abuse by whoever is in power, was articulated as a public demand during the 2018 revolution and was restated after the 2018 snap election. The promise […]
New law on political parties introduces stricter regulation on party financing
On January 18, 2021, amendments to Armenia’s Law on Political Parties were finally signed by President Armen Sarkissian. The bill makes changes to the way political parties will be regulated and incorporates recommendations by OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. This report follows up on EPDE’s A Long Process Though part […]
Policy Alert #6 – New law on political parties introduces stricter regulation on party financing
On 29 December 2020, amendments to Armenia’s Law on Political Parties were passed with widespread consensus following a period of extreme polarization which provide for a substantial increase in public financing of political parties, while increasing the transparency of party donations, prohibiting corporate donations, and decreasing the upper limit for individual donations. The amendments include […]
Policy Alert #5 – Armenia’s Stable Majority Constitutional Provisions Under Review
Armenian Constitution voted for in 2015. Image source: vestnikkavkaza.net Bonus seats and the specter of a non-competitive “second round” election are viewed as threats to the democratic process by civil society groups and reform-minded MPs. In order to fully remove them from the constitution, guarantees for a “stable majority” need to be replaced with […]
Policy Alert #5 – Armenia’s Stable Majority Constitutional Provisions Under Review
The 2015 Constitution promised that Armenia would move toward a fully proportional parliamentary model. However, a number of other provisions serve to distort the translation of votes to seats in practice. They include provisions for various bonus seats and the exclusion of political parties from campaigning if no government can be formed and a “second […]