Documents

The 2015 Constitution promised that Armenia would move toward a fully proportional parliamentary model. However, a number of other provisions serve to distort the translation of votes to seats in practice. They include provisions for various bonus seats and the exclusion of political parties from campaigning if no government can be formed and a “second round” vote is held. 

A volunteer coordinator of EPDE’s member organization, the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, as well as her husband were detained yesterday over charges of causing mass riots. Meanwhile, her husband has been released. There is a growing pressure on civil society in the country as authorities' repressions continue. Human rights organizations as well as the European Parliament and UN experts call for a cessation of violence by authorities against protestors and for the release of now over 80 political prisoners in the country.

Promo-LEX’s second interim report includes the following key observations: there is an uneven increase in the number of voters, unequal opportunities for potential candidates and for certain categories of voters, unreported campaign expenses amounting to at least MDL 735,021 (37,456 EURO), and contestants taking credit for activities funded by public money. The live broadcast of the press conference presenting this report is available with English interpretation here.

The regional and local elections scheduled on 13 September 2020 are to be the first major electoral campaign in Russia to take place following the passing of the Constitutional amendments and the introduction of the epidemiological restrictions. A total of 9071 campaigns are taking place incl. State Duma by-elections in four districts, elections of 18 regional heads (governors), 11 regional parliaments and 22 city councils in administrative centres. More than 78 thousand deputy mandates and elected positions are to be filled.

Analyzing the legal framework of the elections, domestic election experts conclude that the current legal conditions are the worst in the last 25 years. Recent changes to the electoral law on the federal level as well as short-term amendments to the regional election campaign regulations have been introduced to further restrict the electoral rights of citizens, limit the opportunities for citizen election observers and the overall public control over elections.

The main features of the 18 gubernatorial races held on the Single Voting Day were the restricted access for opposition candidates to the elections and the replacement of promising candidates by “technical” sparring-partners nominated by new “technical” parties which have been created with strong support of the authorities. Even candidates of parliamentary parties were massively excluded from gubernatorial elections, while candidates with low approval ratings from “United Russia” began to run as self-nominated candidates.

Promo-LEX issued its first election observation report for the presidential election, which will be held on 1 November 2020. They report the following during the pre-election period - party switching, especially within parliamentary parties, indicating a lack of an institutionalized party system; a lack of a stable and constant parliamentary majority; a noticeable impact of the pandemic on the effectiveness of governmental policies; geopolitical issues feature in the electoral agenda.