No Marking with Pen on Ballots for Elections

The National Assembly of Armenia adopted in the second reading a package of legislative proposals presented by the "Civil Contract" faction, which among other changes, establishes that ballots for local self-governance elections held in a proportional electoral system will not have markings made with a pen.

The package of amendments and changes to the constitutional law of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia received 65 votes in favor during the National Assembly session. Co-author Arthur Hovhannisyan noted that numerous issues had emerged during the snap parliamentary elections held in 2021, as well as during local self-government elections, and thus amendments are proposed to eliminate the identified problems.

He stated, “It is proposed that for local self-governance elections conducted in a proportional electoral system, regardless of the number of voters, separate ballots are to be provided. This means local self-government elections will follow the same model as parliamentary elections, and essentially the pen will be removed during the elections.” Hovhannisyan also suggested that during proportional elections for local self-governance, there should be live streaming of the voting process at polling stations.

This provision will come into force on January 1, 2023. “According to the proposed changes, the names of parties and alliances cannot include personal names, designations of state and local self-governance bodies, or names that are misleadingly similar and their declensions. Alliances are formed with personal names before elections. We have chosen a proportional electoral system and, in fact, we have succeeded in this system, registering progress in the electoral processes. Participating in elections with alliances that have personal names essentially follows the logic of a majoritarian electoral system,” said Hovhannisyan.

During the discussions from the first to the second reading, changes were made, and the law on Parties was added to the package, according to which parties also cannot contain personal names or titles of state and local self-governance bodies, or names that are misleadingly similar and their declensions.