Abolishing sustainable majority in parliament, lowering voting age -  human rights activist on electoral reforms

The commission tasked with drafting the electoral reforms has two major issues dominating its agenda: abolishing the mechanism of creating a sustainable majority in parliament and revising the voting age requirement for young people, a member of the expert panel said today.

At a public debate devoted to the proposed amendments to the Electoral Code, the founder of the Union of Informed Citizen NGO, Daniel Ioannisyan, called attention especially to the latter component, which he considered fundamental for future government formation processes.

"The current Constitution and Electoral Code imply that the parliament will have a sustainable majority as a result of elections; that  mechanism creates virtually no problem in terms of government formation. The issue is now in what way the Government is to be formed if we are abandoning the sustainable majority guarantees," he noted.

As for the voting age, Ioannaisyan said they are considering three options: leaving it unchanged, lowering it to either 16 or 17 instead of the current 18 or giving the legislative the discretionary power to establish an age threshold.

Ioannisyan expressed support to the second proposal, citing the legislative guarantees entitling a 16-year-old citizen of Armenia to work, create a family, pay taxes and join public assemblies.

"Not in the too distant past - in April 2018 - young people of that age group themselves had their direct participation in government formation by blocking streets. If they can achieve that by blocking streets, why not [enable them to express their will] on a ballot-paper?" he asked.