By Ani Paitjan
Election campaigns officially started in Armenia on November 26. The snap parliamentary elections will take place on December 9. Members from two alliances and nine parties are competing for at least 101 seats in the parliament. After the elections, candidates who win the seats will elect Armenia’s next prime minister. But how is the voting process organized?
The snap elections come after two rounds of voting in special sessions of parliament, where Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not receive enough votes to be elected. Pashinyan had been hoping for this result because according to Armenia’s constitution, two rounds of failed voting would result in the dissolution of parliament and trigger snap elections.
Pashinyan hopes to win the elections to enter parliament in a landslide victory and form a government and a parliament that is more “in line with Armenia’s correct political realities.”
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The eleven parties have a total of 1,452 candidates that have started to campaign across the country. According to the Central Electoral Commission, there are 2,574,916 eligible voters in Armenia and 2000 electoral precincts throughout the country.
How is the voting process organized?
Citizens will be voting under the old Electoral Code. In October, a new bill to amend the Electoral Code was introduced by Pashinyan’s government, but it failed to receive enough votes to become law.
Under the current electoral code, each political party or bloc taking part in the election will have one national electoral list of candidates and one district electoral list. There are 13 electoral districts in the country, which correspond with Armenia’s regions or marzes. Four of the districts are set in the capital, Yerevan.
A complex voting system
In accordance with the current Electoral Code, each party presents 13 territorial party lists in addition to their usual national party list. For example, if the people of Tavush region choose to vote for a given party, they can pick their favorite candidate from that party’s Tavush territorial list. However, they can’t vote for a local candidate from one party and the national list of another party since the two had been merged into one cast list. Thus, if you give a vote to a party’s candidate, you’re also giving a vote to the party on the national list.
In addition, the parties need to surpass a minimum threshold of the total popular vote to get a seat in parliament. The threshold is 5 percent for a single party. Alliances present a single list of candidates during the election and for these alliances, the threshold is 7 percent. This is called the “rating” electoral system.
Most political parties disagree with this system because it disadvantages parties or alliances that have less impact. An established party in a region can, for instance, use the rating system to its own benefit by recruiting local candidates to compete against each other, increasing the total votes for their party. This will allow those on its national list to gain more points.
Read more:
Armenia Election Campaigns Officially Kicked Off
Meet the 11 People Leading the Lists in Armenia’s Parliamentary Elections
Armenia Elections: A Timeline of Upcoming Events
Pictured: Nikol Pashinyan’s rally in Vanadzor, 27 Nov. 2018 (photo by Vahan Abrahamyan)