30 in Favor, 56 Opposed, 4 Abstained: Voting System in Parliamentary Elections Remains Unchanged

There won’t be any amendments to voting procedures in the May 6 parliamentary elections in Armenia — 41 lawmakers will be elected by a majority ballot, while 90 will be elected on a party-list basis (proportional representation).

This was determined after a voting in parliament held earlier today, in which 30 voted in favor of moving to a 100% proportional representation system, 56 voted against and 4 abstained — thereby leaving the current voting procedure intact.

Note, in the parliamentary elections, Armenian citizens vote for individual candidates on the majority ballot, but vote for political parties on the proportional ballot. Opposition parties have been pushing for a move to a 100% proportional representation system as they believe the majority seats are biased in favor of larger political groups and oligarchs.

This latest bill was put to a vote by parliamentary opposition parties Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D). Ahead of the vote, Heritage Party MP Larisa Alaverdyan urged deputies to vote in favor of the bill, stressing that the current system supports the strengthening of the existing authorities.

While voting was taking place inside parliament, demonstrators, mainly supporters of the Heritage Party, ARF-D and the extra-parliamentary opposition bloc Armenian National Congress, continued to protest outside the parliamentary gates.