Arpine Hovhannisyan on working visit to Vienna

On 2 November, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan participated in and gave a speech at the OSCE/ODIHR seminar entitled "Election observation and follow up of recommendations" in Vienna.

Arpine Hovhannisyan presented the major developments that took place before and after the adoption of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, touched upon the introduction of a system for identifying voters with 10 fingerprints, the publication of signed voters' lists and the introduction of a system for videotaping prescribed by the Draft Electoral Code.

"What guided us throughout the entire process was our major goal of establishing mutual confidence in electoral processes and holding proper and unprecedented elections, and in the created situation, this decision on publication of lists is a major step aimed at ensuring public confidence," Arpine Hovhannisyan mentioned. According to her, it has been established that the Central Electoral Commission shall allow the specialised organisation — selected as a result of a tender — to carry out the videotaping of the voting process and the process of summarisation of the voting results at all electoral precincts and to concurrently webcast. It is also envisaged to archive the videotapes.

Presenting the "4+4+4" format negotiations, the Minister of Justice mentioned that Armenia had organised discussions on the Draft Electoral Code that have been as inclusive as possible. According to her, it was a major platform for balanced discussions and comprised members of the opposition, representatives of the authorities and civil society representatives. At the end, Arpine Hovhannisyan stressed that Armenia had implemented in the new Electoral Code the prevailing majority of the recommendations submitted by the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission.