In Armenia, opposition holds rally to change election system

On February 28, in Yerevan, in front of the Armenian National Assembly building, a rally was held. The rally participants demanded the Parliament's approval of legislative initiate proposed by the opposition to introduce a 100-percent proportional election system.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 27, 2011, the "Heritage" and "ARF Dashnaktsutyun" Parties issued a joint statement in which they proposed to abolish the majoritarian election system and to introduce the 100-percent proportional election system. On February 15, the Armenian National Assembly started the parliamentary hearings on the discussion of the legislative initiative. The voting on the draft law on the proportional system of elections was appointed for February 29.

The action involved representatives and supporters of the parliamentary opposition represented by the "Dashnaktsutyun" and the "Heritage" parties and by the extra-parliamentary oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC).

"We have joined the action in the hope that the Parliament will approve the draft law to introduce the 100-percent proportional election system," said Vladimir Karapetyan, the ANC's representative, in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Raffi Ovannisyan, ex-Foreign Minister, Chairman of the "Heritage" Party, called for the interaction of different oppositional parties and supported participation of ordinary citizens in the action.

"Unfortunately, at present, the majoritarian system has led to the fact that authorities put forward local criminals as candidates for deputy in majoritarian districts. This is done to organize various kinds of fraud. That is, there is a mutually beneficial deal: authorities condone lawlessness and crimes of local authorities, and, in return, they provide for authorities votes on proportional lists," states Avedis Avakyan, the ANC's representative.

According to him, even if a party gets 40 or 50 percent of the votes in the Parliament, it will still not be able to make a majority, since 41 mandates of the elected majoritarian MPs provides for the authorities the majority in the National Assembly.

According to some protesters, such actions will undoubtedly have a positive outcome.

In total, the action was attended by about 200 persons. The rally was accompanied by loud drums and chanting: "Free, Independent Armenia!" Most participants were holding posters reading: "100-percent proportional election system" and the flags of Armenia.

The participants held a rally near the gates at the main entrance to the Parliament in Bagratyan Avenue in Yerevan. Policemen lined on the roadway of the street, along the protesters, and behaved with restraint.