On September 27 in the National Assembly the discussions on the draft amendments to the RA Electoral Code with participation of representatives of the NA political forces, experts of the Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR, international organizations, CEC (Central Electoral Commission) representatives and experts began.

Mr. Tigran Torosyan, the President of the National Assembly, opening the sitting, thanked the experts for the readiness to participate in the discussions on the issues. There was no agreement reached among political forces regarding these issues. The NA President mentioned that the core issue of the discussions of the amendments to the Electoral Code presented by the political forces was the joint conclusion of the representatives of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR. As a result of discussions, an agreement was reached to include in the draft the proposals of the joint conclusion of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, excluding the items 28, 42-45 and 56. There were issues in the joint conclusion regarding the procedure of the two processes. One of the issues concerned the voting procedure, which is rather complicated according to experts. The other issue concerned the appeal procedure. As a result of discussion with the authors of the draft, it was decided to include all proposals in the draft leaving as a matter of discussion the above-mentioned six items and the two procedures. Mr. T. Torosyan mentioned that the draft was sent to the experts a week ago, where the adopted proposals were taken into consideration. The NA President expressed a hope that the discussions will be held in conditions of mutual consent.

During the sitting the discussions on draft amendments to the RA Electoral Code were held on the order of appealing the decisions, actions and idleness of the electoral commissions, the issues of the guarantees of the observers’ rights, obligations and activity, the responsibility for the breaches of the electoral legislation, the recall of the members of the Electoral Commission, the training of the members of the electoral commissions.

The discussions of the draft amendments to the Electoral Code will be continued on September 28.