YEREVAN. – The majority election system functioning in Armenia is antidemocratic, opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party MP Armen Rustamyan stated during the National Assembly (NA) hearings devoted to changing to a 100-percent proportional election system in the country.   

He added that in all of independent’s Armenia’s parliaments the majority election system had obstructed the expression of the will of the people, as the opposition forces, for whom the people voted, had a very small representation in NA.      

As per Rustamyan, the majority election system has always served for the reproduction of the authorities, and the ousting of the opposition. ARF MP proposed to at least be honest and to auction off the majority election seats.   

The other keynote speaker, opposition Heritage Party’s Deputy Chairman Ruben Hakobyan, noted it is not a secret that the main voting fraud is committed in the majority election system. “There is a simple business deal between the authorities and the candidates who enter NA through the majority [election]. The authorities turn a blind eye to the falsifications and violations, and the MP elected by the majority [election] brings votes for the authorities,” Hakobyan maintained, and added that more than half of the 41 MP’s who were elected by the majority election have not come to NA in months.