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 […]
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 # 4 – Armenia explores alternative to referendum on Constitutional Court
Image source: massispost.com Armenia was supposed to hold a referendum on April 5, 2020, on whether to replace 7 of its 9 Constitutional Court judges. The referendum was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now seen as too great a risk to public health to go ahead. An alternative approach has been […]
Armenia explores alternative to referendum on Constitutional Court
Armenia was supposed to hold a referendum on April 5, 2020, on whether to replace 7 of its 9 Constitutional Court judges. The referendum was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now seen as too great a risk to public health to go ahead. Instead of terminating the 7 judges immediately, the government […]
Policy Alert # 3 – Armenia to expand proportional representation to municipal elections with tri-partisan bill
Image source: emerging-europe.com MPs from all three parliamentary factions (My Step, Prosperous Armenia, and Bright Armenia) have sponsored Bill G-567 to make changes to how municipal councils and mayors are elected. Specifically, mayors in the largest cities and towns will no longer be directly-elected but chosen by city councils, who will also be given […]
Armenia to expand proportional representation to municipal elections with tri-partisan bill
MPs from all three parliamentary factions have sponsored a bill that seeks to change how municipal councils and mayors are elected. Specifically, mayors in the largest cities and towns will no longer be directly elected but chosen by city councils, who will also be given the power to remove them mid-term. The closed party list […]
Policy Alert # 2 – Changes to Armenia’s Political Party Regulation: toward more transparent party financing
Image source: gmfus.org On March 20, 2020, the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission, VC) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) published their Joint Opinion on Draft Amendments to the Legislation Concerning Political Parties, by request of Armenia’s National Assembly. The changes were largely welcomed with a […]
Changes to Armenia’s Political Party Regulation: toward more transparent party financing
Prior to the COVID-19 state of emergency disrupting ongoing reform processes and the scheduled constitutional referendum, a new law on political parties was supposed to be amended and passed by June 2020. Most of the new provisions were welcomed by international experts. The draft law includes provisions that would make state funding for parties contingent […]
Need for unbiased formation of PECs ahead of referendum
Before the approval of the composition of precinct electoral commissions of the constitutional referendum, ″Independent Observer″ Alliance received alarms stating that in the process of the examination of commission members, ″parallel examinations″ were conducted, during which credentials were also given to ″acquaintances″ of precinct electoral commission members. Later, certain persons willing to be included in […]
Consolidating Democratic Transition in Armenia
In March 2019, the Parliamentary factions started a dialogue on the priorities of the electoral reforms and established a timeline that included changes to various laws. HCAV have summarized what the expected amendments will be in this new policy alert. They furthermore call on the EU to strongly denounce the attacks against genuine civil society, […]