Yesterday the RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan has sent an official letter to the Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan and the chairman of the NA standing committee on Legal Issues Davit Harutyunyan, where he presented his recommendations to the amendments of the RA Electoral Code of RA, which consisted of 21 pages.
Harutyunyan mentions that the purpose of the proposed recommendations is to improve electoral policies. He based his recommendations on the issues and concerns raised as an outcome of the Parliamentary elections 2007 and Presidential elections 2008. These are the issues, which “spread unjustified shade on the electoral process.” The first recommendation of the Ombudsman relates to the formation of independent and non-partisan commissions. “In this regard we must mention that members of the Central Electoral Commission during the whole period of Central Electoral Commission activity, and members of district and precinct electoral commission during national elections can be subjected to administrative or criminal liability by court order, only upon the consent of the Central Electoral Commission,” reads the letter of the Ombudsman.” According to Harutyunyan the experience showed that the political will is not enough for the conduct of fair and free elections. Therefore he offers the following, “During the elections the candidates nominated to the National Assembly under majoritarian and proportional systems can be arrested, subjected to administrative or criminal liability by court order, solely upon the consent of the Central Electoral Commission. The Central Electoral Commission takes a decision on the above-mentioned issue by at least two-thirds vote of the total number of the members of the commission.” A candidate nominated for the community head or council member can be arrested upon the consent of the Regional Electoral Commission. The Regional Electoral Commission makes a final decision on the matter with at least two-thirds vote of the commission members participating in the voting. The implementation of such an amendment will, to some extent, restrict the independence of Human Rights Defender taking into account the fact that in majority of cases the HRD implements his activities through his staff. Besides, it shall be taken into consideration that the Defender has been recognized as an Independent National Preventive Mechanism provided by the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, thus this would presume an increase of the risk in the activities of HRDO staff members working in that field. Harutyunyan thinks that the RA citizens, who live abroad on the day of the voting, must have the chance to vote. “We believe that the limitation of their suffrage cannot be justified. I mean the several thousand of people, who live and work abroad. They must have the opportunity to vote in the country they live,” thinks the Ombudsman. By the way the latter of the Ombudsman also speaks about the campaign conduct as well as the activities of the media during the campaign period. In regard with the annulment of section 5 of Article 78, section 6 of Article 111 and Article 127 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia we consider that in the circumstances of our reality it is not appropriate to deprive the candidates for the President of the Republic, for National Assembly Deputies, and for Community Head and Council Member from their inviolability. The adoption of the present Draft Law can make possible to exert pressure on unwanted candidates. The draft law “On making amendments to the RA Law “On Human Rights Defender” provides to set section 5 of Article 23 of the RA Law “On Human Rights Defender” in following wording: In case of subjecting any person holding a post in the HRDO staff to detention, arrestment, administrative or criminal liability by court order, the enforcing agency shall inform the Defender of this occurrence in the defined procedure and due time. “In this connection, I think it is highly important that the committee use the powers vested in it by the National Assembly resolution of 16.06.2008 and start its activities with a multifarious investigation of the events of the morning of March 1, considering the cause and effect relation between the abovementioned events and further developments, as well as considering that the morning of March 1 is part of the entire process which was the least studied and revealed by the law enforcement bodies. I think that as a result of the activities of the committee the questions must be answered: what decision was made, when and by whom, on which the law enforcers acted in the morning of March 1? At the same time, I reassert my readiness to assist in the activities of the committee in both defining the issues and assessing the credibility of the expected answers.” Secondly, if it is an attempt of unification of legislation, it would be necessary to follow the path to amend the Constitution by abolishing the right to immunity of all other individuals. However, in our opinion the effectiveness of the latter would have been justified in countries with a developed democracy, where legitimacy and human rights are distinctly protected, which is an enviable future for Armenia. Thirdly, the implementation of such an amendment will, to some extent, restrict the independence of Human Rights Defender taking into account the fact that in majority of cases the HRD implements his activities through his staff. Besides, it shall be taken into consideration that the Defender has been recognized as an Independent National Preventive Mechanism provided by the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, thus this would presume an increase of the risk in the activities of HRDO staff members working in that field. Section 6 of Article 111: During the elections the candidates nominated to the National Assembly by majoritarian and proportional system can be arrested, subjected to administrative or criminal liability by court order, solely upon the consent of the Central Electoral Commission. The Central Electoral Commission takes a decision on the above-mentioned issue by at least two-thirds vote of the total number of the members of the commission. Article 127: A candidate nominated for the community head or council member can be arrested upon the consent of the Regional Electoral Commission. The Regional Electoral Commission makes a final decision on the matter with at least two-thirds vote of the commission members participating in the voting. In regard with the annulment of section 5 of Article 78, section 6 of Article 111 and Article 127 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia we consider that in the circumstances of our reality it is not appropriate to deprive the candidates for the President of the Republic, for National Assembly Deputies, and for Community Head and Council Member from their inviolability. The adoption of the present Draft Law can make possible to exert pressure on unwanted candidates. The next recommendation of Armen Harutyunyan relates to the voting right of the dual citizens. “It is worth mentioning that in the joint opinion of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission the state admits the right of dual citizenship. It means that the dual citizens must have no fewer rights than the sole citizens.” The Ombudsman also submitted recommendations on the organization of the campaigns, printing of brochures and other materials.