Pashinyan reforms Electoral Code for extraordinary elections

The commission for reforming the Armenia electoral legislation has offered to abolish the rating system of voting at parliamentary elections, to abandon the use of fountain pens, and to colour voters' fingers with colourless ink to rule out any repeated voting.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the extraordinary parliamentary elections in Armenia should be held not later than in a year.

On June 19, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a decree on setting up a commission for reforming the electoral legislation.

Although the commission has officially only just been formed, the work on reforming the Electoral Code is coming to an end, Daniel Ionesyan, the secretary of the commission, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on June 21.

He noted that the main amendment would be the abolition of the rating system; the voting will take place "under the proportional, clear to anyone, simple electoral system. Besides, there will be no pens in the booths. A voter will just put the ballot paper with the name of the preferred party or block into an envelope."

It is also planned to introduce a finger marking system with colourless ink, as an additional mechanism excluding a repeated voting, Mr Ionesyan has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 22, 2018 at 06:38 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.