Will the electoral thresholds change? It depends on the President of Armenia. "Hraparak"

The newspaper "Hraparak" writes: "The Parliament will discuss a substantial package of amendments to the Electoral Code at its upcoming extraordinary session, which has recently been submitted for examination by the Venice Commission. The new provisions of the Electoral Code will come into force in January next year and will not apply to the upcoming elections.

However, the coordinator of the working group on electoral reforms in the National Assembly, My Step faction member Hamazasp Danielyan, did not rule out that certain provisions might come into effect by June 20. 'The likelihood of any provision coming into force will largely depend on when it is signed by the president,' he said, without specifying which provisions he was referring to.

It is noteworthy that the package includes a reduction in the electoral threshold: for parties it will decrease by 1% to 4%, while for alliances the threshold will be raised. In the case of a two-party alliance, the threshold will become 8%, for a three-party alliance, it will be 9%, and for alliances of three or more parties, it will be 10%.

We asked if there are provisions that have received negative opinions from the Venice Commission. 'Yes, one of the most obvious examples is the publication of signed voter lists. It is related to the principle of electoral secrecy.' Let us remind you that in 2016, when the Republican Party of Armenia adopted the Electoral Code, the opposition raised an outcry, forcing the authorities to make concessions and agree to the opposition's proposal to publish signed voter lists; now, this provision is being removed.

In 2017, when this amendment was introduced at the opposition's request and the Republican Party conceded, European institutions have since stated in all their opinions that it is not a good solution in terms of secrecy. However, it seems that it will not be removed from the draft: 'We have not abandoned it, because signed lists have significantly contributed to increasing trust in elections. The question is when, over time, it will be possible to clean the voter lists; European standards can be followed.' For more details, see the newspaper's issue today.