The penalties for vote buying have been toughened in Armenia.

The Criminal Code’s relevant amendments, which were tabled by National Assembly (NA) speaker Alen Simonyan and a number of other MPs from the ruling majority Civil Contract faction, were approved by the NA at its session Friday.

According to these amendments, the maximum term of imprisonment for vote buying has been increased from 3-6 years to 4-8 years. The penalty for vote buying committed by prior agreement has been toughened from 4-8 years to 5-10 years. A similar penalty is provided also for mediation in the transfer of election bribe.

The term of imprisonment for accepting election bribe has been increased from 1-3 years to 2-5 years, and in case of committing the crime with prior consent, from 3-7 years to 4-8 years.

In addition, the maximum term of imprisonment for violating the ban on charity during the election campaign has been increased from 3-6 years to 4-8 years.

The parliamentary opposition, however, did not participate in the respective voting.