"Making a transition to the 100 percent proportional electoral order is untimely." Accepting this as a basis, the Armenian government today denied the legislative initiative presented by "Heritage" and the ARF-D factions to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections through one electoral order. According to Deputy Minister of Justice Grigor Muradyan, the transition to the 100 percent electoral order should take place in stages.
"We don't understand the need of making the transition to the 100 percent proportional electoral order ahead of the elections. The electoral processes have already begun, and this transition may simply impede those processes," noted Deputy Minister Muradyan.
According to him, what Armenia needs is the majoritarian electoral order. "That electoral order is capable of ensuring a certain relationship between deputies and the population of the given territory, but that is not that possible in the case of political parties."
Muradyan also advised not to draw parallels between electoral fraud and the majoritarian electoral order.
Deputy Minister of Justice Grigor Muradyan is certain that no electoral order by itself can guarantee the efficiency and particularly the transparency of an electoral process.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan began today's government session by saying that Armenia had gone up on the media freedom index and was now in 27th place, according to the Journalists without Borders international organization.
"I think the free press has had an important role in the formation of civil society in the past four years, as mentioned in the political statement of the Armenian National Congress," said Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
