Armenian parliament set to criminalize obstruction of election campaigning, coercion to vote and election bribery
YEREVAN, April 28. /ARKA/. Obstruction of election campaigning, coercion to vote, and vote buying are set to be criminalized in Armenia, MP from the ruling My Step faction Vahagn Hovakimyan said during an extraordinary session of parliament on Wednesday as he unveiled a set of changes to Criminal Code and related Code of Administrative Offenses and the Citizenship Law.
He said the proposed changes are presented in a package of reforms to the Electoral Code, which, however, may not be adopted before the snap parliamentary elections, scheduled for June 20.
“This in mind, we decided that the changes that need to be adopted before the start of the elections should be presented separately, especially that they have all been discussed for a long time,” Hovakimyan said.
He said according to a proposed change, in case of obstruction of the electoral process at a polling station, the results of the vote at that polling stations can be invalidated.
“This means that if the process is obstructed during the elections and the results are invalidated, the guilty person (s) will be punished more severely,” Hovakimyan said.
According to him, the changes provide for responsibility for coercion to campaigning. “In fact, not only coercion or refusal, but also obstruction of campaigning will entail criminal punishment,” Hovakimyan said.
The use of force or the threat of the use of force in a polling station or at its entrance are to be criminalized as well.
According to him, giving or receiving bribes, violation of the ban on charity during the pre-election period or obstruction of the free expression of the will of voters are also to be criminalized to make the fight against such offenses more productive.
Under the current rules, the above-mentioned violations are punishable by a fine or imprisonment for a period of 6 months to a year. According to the proposed amendments, the criminal punishment for almost all offenses are to be raised to 1 to 3 years.
Ani Samsonyan, a deputy from the Bright Armenia opposition party, noted that criminalization of these offenses may lead to problems with Armenia's international obligations and conventions.
“The changes provide for the criminalization of fake information about a party or candidate, while such offenses are to be treated as libel, which is decriminalized in Armenia. Making such changes will cause problems with international conventions,” Samsonyan said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigned on Sunday, but will stay in office in a caretaker capacity until the June 20 parliamentary election aimed to defuse the protracted political crisis in the country.
Pashinyan said he would stand as a candidate for prime minister. He has been facing opposition demands to resign since he signed a peace deal in November with Azerbaijani and Russian leaders to end the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed thousands of young lives, and saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter of a century. -0-
