National Assembly Discusses Bill on Move to 100% Proportional Representation in Parliamentary Elections

Parliamentary hearings on the opposition’s request to move to 100% proportional representation in parliament began in Armenia’s National Assembly today. All major political parties were in attendance, including parliamentary factions and extra-parliamentary political groups.

Recall, the existing Electoral Code stipulates that 90 of the 131 parliament seats are to be contested under the system of proportional representation. The remaining 41 deputies are elected in single-seat constituencies across the country. As reported by RFE/RL’s Armenian service, the government earlier rejected a bill by the two parliamentary opposition parties, the Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D), proposing to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections only on the party-list basis (100% proportional representation). The Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), which has the parliamentary majority, opposed the bill then and said it would block the measure in parliament as well.

So it came as no surprise that HHK MP Davit Harutyunyan on Wednesday came out against the bill, arguing that it would weaken the direct link between voter and the voted MP. According to Harutyunyan, those who are in the top of the party list in the proportional system often withdraw their parliamentary mandates and then those who are not so well known get into parliament.

RA Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasyan noted that there is no “best model,” while highlighting the weak points of the proportional representation system. According to him, this system leads to complications in calculations and monitoring while intensifying internal-party competition.

Heritage Party MP Armen Martirosyan didn’t agree with his colleagues, saying that the reality in Armenia is that MPs elected through the majority system are “appointed feudalists,” which has a negative impact on the National Assembly’s work.

MP Lyova Khachatryan (no party affiliate) added that no majority system is worth even two people to become hostile toward each other. “The consequence of majority-system elections is hostility among people,” she said.

She mentioned that she was elected on the majority ticket and put forth several bills which weren’t passed because, in her opinion, she doesn’t represent any political party. Thus, Khachatryan concluded that the majority system is ineffective as it is the political party that is the determining factor.

Also in favor of moving only to the party-list basis of being elected into parliament was ARF-D Vahan Hovhannisyan.

He argued that the view that moving to a proportional system will break the connection between the voter and the MP are unfounded as, particularly in the case of MPs elected from the regions (outside the capital), they don’t lives in those areas in which they’re elected — living in Yerevan, these MPs aren’t recognized by voters. The MP mentioned that he has compiled a list of such MPs but won’t make it public so as not to put them in an awkward situation.