0 8000 12 11

On March 24, 2016, Civilitas Foundation held a public debate in Vanadzor on ‘New Electoral Code: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Elections’.

The public debate was attended by the speakers below: Edmon Marukyan, founder of Bright Armenia (Lusavor Hayastan) Party; Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor, and Armen Mazmanyan, PhD in Law.

The public debate was facilitated by Derenik Malkhasyan, Civilitas Foundation analyst.

The public debate was also attended by Marten Ehnberg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Armenia.

In his speech, he expressed his gratitude to the organizers and participants of the public debate, highlighted the involvement of the civil society in such public debates and expressed a hope that such debates would be continuous. The Ambassador also showed willingness to share the Swedish best practices.

In his speech, NA deputy E. Marukyan touched upon the opposition moods in the country, and particularly in Vanadzor, which, according to the deputy, depended heavily on the traditions of the civil society, NGO sector, the media sector, attorney community and generally the establishment of the civil society institutions.

A. Sakunts, Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, does not consider it to make logic to hold local elections in Vanadzor and Gyumri under the proportional electoral procedure. The speaker attributed this to the fact that the Republican Party had failed completely in the 2 cities above. At the same time, he referred to E. Marukyan’s speech and noted that in Vanadzor, the opposition forces were not influential.

In his speech, A. Sakunts prioritized the importance of public trust in the electoral institute.

In his speech, A. Mazmanyan, PhD in Law, highlighted disclosure of signed voters’ lists and referring to the introduction of public lists, said that it could not be considered a definitely positive or negative change. While in terms of democracy, it can be considered positive, it may pose serious dangers for our country for the risk of gaining votes under the influence of the “local underworld leaders”.

Marten Ehnberg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Armenia, shared the Swedish best practices of coordinating and holding elections by mentioning that in Sweden, the signed voters’ lists were not disclosed either, but were considered public documents, stored at community administration offices and available to citizens.

For more details, see the video.