MP Stepan Safaryan is sure that scrapping the majoritarian system will give an opportunity to hold fairer elections, as in this case there is no point in distributing election bribes.

More than ten political forces in Armenia espouse the passage to a 100-percent proportional system of parliamentary representation, but the ruling party still deems it premature. 

The National Assembly of Armenia has 131 seats, with 41 members elected from single-mandate constituencies, or by the majoritarian system as it is called. 

Stepan Safaryan, a senior lawmaker of the Heritage Party that has the smallest faction in the National Assembly, presenting the arguments of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition forces, stated that switching to a proportional system of elections is one of the means of having a parliament with more qualified lawmakers. 

“As a rule those lawmakers who were elected by the majoritarian system do not participate in any political discussion, preferring to be silent listeners; and during ballots they vote as lawmakers representing the ruling coalition,” Safaryan said. 

“Even though the main function of those lawmakers is supposed to be raising the problems of their constituencies, the practice of recent years shows that the most important issues in provinces of Armenia, for example environmental concerns over Trchkan and Kajaran, have been raised in parliament by lawmakers from the Heritage faction,” Safaryan added.

Representative of the ruling Republican Party Rafik Petrosyan, who himself was elected from a single-mandate constituency, grounding the position of the ruling party which is against passing to an all-proportional electoral system, said that the majority system enables about 80 percent of the country’s population to feel represented in the National Assembly, and thus participate in the governance of the country. 

“Article 30 of the Constitution of Armenia gives people an opportunity to nominate their candidates and defend their interest in parliament through them without interference from any party,” Petrosyan says. “On the other hand, unfortunately not a single party has involved representatives from provinces in their proportional lists, which means that in case of passing to a 100-percent proportional electoral system we would have a parliament of Yerevantsis,” Petrosyan added.

The pro-establishment lawmaker believes that ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections the authorities had better show their political will and hold fair and transparent elections. 

Nevertheless, Safaryan is sure that scrapping the majoritarian system will give an opportunity to hold fairer elections, because in case of all-proportional system elections there is no point in distributing election bribes in any district.