Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   19 March 2024

Yelk faction MP Lena Nazaryan wants to reach number of women in Parliament to 40%

Yelk faction MP Lena Nazaryan wants to reach number of women in Parliament to 40%

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The discussions of the working group on the reforms of the Electoral Code have been completed in the Armenian Parliament on July 27. 4 parliamentary political forces have summed up their proposals and submitted them to the government.

Lena Nazaryan, Yelk faction MP, member of the Board of the Civil Contract Party, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the Electoral Code, the increase of the number of female lawmakers in the Parliament and other issues.

-The package of proposals you have presented is already in the government. What do you think, to what extent they will be accepted by the executive?

-All proposals are mainly good, and the government just needs to express opinion on whether they are realistic to be implemented during that time. There are two contradictory issues relating to the open and closed proportional electoral systems: only one of them should be adopted.

-Yelk and Tsarukyan factions proposed to enshrine the closed proportional electoral system in the new Electoral Code. What is its advantage compared to the open proportional system?

-In the case of open proportional electoral system, the party submits the list to the Central Electoral Commission in alphabetical order, but later, when the voter gives preference to any candidate on the opposite side of the ballot, the candidates, who received more votes, have a chance to receive a mandate regardless of the place in the list. But as for the closed proportional system, the party submits the list in its preferred sequence, and the more percentage it receives based on the election result, the more people from that list are elected as MPs.

-You have proposed to reach the proportion of male and female MPs in the Parliament to 60-40%. Are the political parties ready today to have such a great number of female lawmakers in the Parliament?

-Taking into account the new political situation, many women want to be included in the party list, participate in the elections and work at the Parliament. Previously they avoided this since there was no internal democracy among the parties, and women had concerns in connection with receiving a mandate. But if the proportion was 60-40%, women would know that there is such a demand before the parties, that their activeness will be appreciated and that they will be in such places of the list which will allow them to participate in the elections and be elected as MPs. Compared to women, men in general have no problem to participate in the elections. They neither face difficulties to participate in the campaign nor financial problems for organizing the campaign. Men have no difficulties both in the parties and with voters.

-Various contradictory comments were made over the Civil Contract’s party nomination of Hayk Marutyan as candidate for the Mayor of Yerevan in the upcoming early elections. Some of the citizens complain that Marutyan has no political biography. How did he surpass his fellow party opponents?

-Hayk has a great political biography. Over the past years he has conducted a very active public activity, participated in main campaigns and acted the role of the supporter during the recent revolution. Anyone will always find some contradictory things. They will submit their program, Hayk will launch his campaign, will present his ideas on the city’s development, and everything will be good.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan








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