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The Draft Electoral Code (hereinafter the Draft) failed to be submitted to the National Assembly in due time and was notpublished, though as was revealed later, the fact of it being ready was kept secret from the public by the responsible state bodies for a certain time. As it was found later,the English version of the document was posted on the official website of the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) on 22 February 2016. It was only on 2 March 2016 that the public got access to the Draftdue to its inclusion on the agenda of the Government sessionof 3 March 2016.Moreover,even as of that time the Draftfailed to be posted on the official websites of either the Ministry of Justice, or the CEC.

The Draft was elaborated and was included on the agenda of Government session in gross violation of the procedures stipulated by Armenian legislation on elaboration and circulation of legal acts. In particular, the requirements on regulatory impact assessment of legal acts stipulated by the Law on Legal Acts, organizing and conducting public discussions provided by Government decision, and submitting issues to the Government’s sessionprescribed by presidential decree were violated. Before the Government approval the authors drafting the document refrained from participating in the discussions initiated by NGOs.

Responding to the opposition political forces’ proposal of negotiating with the authorities to reach consensus on the main issues of the Draft anddelegated by more than 200 civil society organizations, the NGO representatives with an extensive experience in the elections,took part in discussions in 4+4+4 format (governmentcoalition, non-ruling political parties and NGOs). It was expected that as a result of negotiations theDraftElectoral Code would be considerablyimprovedand through stipulation of effective mechanisms there would be  prerequisites for reforming the electoral system of Armenia created within the Draftin order to ensurethe public trust. Five priority recommendations,agreed by a group of NGOs and non-ruling political parties,were the main issues discussed during the discussions. However, due to unyielding position of the representatives of state bodies the discussions failed to give any essential results. Despite the recommendationsput forward in the final report of OSCE/ODIHR referendum expert team andthe previous respective recommendations made by OSCE/ODIHR, the amendments to electoral legislation were not carried out inclusively, and the stakeholders were notgiven an opportunity to make every effort for reaching possible consensus on the reforms. Hence, one may insist that the authorities did not undertake any real step towards reaching a consensus in the process of drafting the electoral code and developing the public trust.

In addition to the above mentioned issues of concern,the Draft failed to make any progress to meet the requirements of the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Mattersof the Venice Commission.

Below are presented the issues of the Draftworth mentioning.

Opinion on the compliance of the provisions of Draft Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia with international standards