A legislative package including amendments to the Electoral code, the Law on political parties, and the Law on local self-government was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on 18 June 2020.

The changes will see the introduction of proportional representation in elections for local self-government bodies with more than 4000 electors and an increased role for political parties at local level.

The package of laws was developed with the support of the Council of Europe through the “Democratic Development, Decentralisation and Good Governance in Armenia” project funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation and implemented by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance in the context of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia.

A Community Consultation Initiative organised under the project on 19 February 2020 helped raise awareness of the possible changes and resulted in concrete proposals from civic initiative groups being discussed at Committee level in the National Assembly. In their joint opinion on the proposed amendments to the legislation on political parties, the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODHIR recently welcomed the fact that such public consultations had taken place.[1]

The project aims to support democratic development in Armenia by contributing to the establishment of an improved legal framework in line with European standards and to encourage more effective and inclusive participatory mechanisms for civil participation in political decision-making.