MP: AUTHORITIES NEED MAJORITY ELECTION SYSTEM FOR REPRODUCTION
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 22, 2011 - 17:01 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia's authorities lack political will for
holding fair elections and need the majority system for reproduction,
a member of parliament said.
"Authorities do not wish to give away the tools of their reproduction,
and they will fight for them. We will be fighting against those tools,"
Armen Rustamyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun party member, said at a political
debate on election systems.
He stressed that not a single opposition or independent candidate,
who would later become opposition supporter, has won a seat by majority
system. According to Rustamyan, money is the decisive factor in those
elections. Here he ironically suggested authorities holding auctions
for deputy mandates on majority system and use the money for settling
issues in the constituencies.
He said Armenia's key problem is that people do not believe that they
can achieve change of power through elections.
For his part, Heritage party member Ruben Hakobyan noted that Armenia
saw the only fair election in 1990 in the soviet election system. He
stressed that proportional representation system in Armenia is a must.
Today, 90 of Armenia's 131 National Assembly deputies are elected by
proportional system and 41 by majority system.
The debates were initiated by the Armenian Center for Political and
International Research assisted by the US National Democracy Institute
(NDI).
From: A. Papazian
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 22, 2011 - 17:01 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia's authorities lack political will for
holding fair elections and need the majority system for reproduction,
a member of parliament said.
"Authorities do not wish to give away the tools of their reproduction,
and they will fight for them. We will be fighting against those tools,"
Armen Rustamyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun party member, said at a political
debate on election systems.
He stressed that not a single opposition or independent candidate,
who would later become opposition supporter, has won a seat by majority
system. According to Rustamyan, money is the decisive factor in those
elections. Here he ironically suggested authorities holding auctions
for deputy mandates on majority system and use the money for settling
issues in the constituencies.
He said Armenia's key problem is that people do not believe that they
can achieve change of power through elections.
For his part, Heritage party member Ruben Hakobyan noted that Armenia
saw the only fair election in 1990 in the soviet election system. He
stressed that proportional representation system in Armenia is a must.
Today, 90 of Armenia's 131 National Assembly deputies are elected by
proportional system and 41 by majority system.
The debates were initiated by the Armenian Center for Political and
International Research assisted by the US National Democracy Institute
(NDI).
From: A. Papazian