- 3 September, 2024
- Elections
The Union of Informed Citizens is advancing a proposal for constitutional amendments, according to which the principle of a stable majority in the Parliament should be removed from the Constitution. Here is a brief summary on the matter (you can find the long version here).
What the principle of stable majority constitutes
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia adopted in 2015, if as a result of the parliamentary elections, no party receives more than 50% of the seats and the political forces that have passed the threshold are unable to form a coalition, then a second round of elections shall be held, in which the two forces that received the most votes shall participate. The winner of the second round receives additional seats so as to have a majority in the parliament, regardless of the public support they had in the first (main) round of elections.
In other words, the force that collects 25-30 percent of the votes can get a parliamentary majority and form a government alone.
Why this principle should be changed
The stable majority principle has several problems:
– it contradicts the very essence of parliamentarism since the force that received bonus seats receives more seats in the parliament than the proportion of its voters;
– a parliament is formed that does not proportionally reflect the opinions of different segments of the public, the “the winner takes it all” principle applies;
– political forces are not motivated to negotiate and engage in a dialogue;
– the political struggle moves from the parliament to the street, because the parliament ceases to proportionally represent the public.
How it should be changed
In order to eliminate the principle of stable majority, it should be stipulated in Article 89 of the Constitution that if no force gets a majority, then the parliament shall not be considered formed and shall not hold its first session until the political forces form a coalition. And if a government is not formed within the specified period and the parties do not reach an agreement, the President of the Republic of Armenia shall call for new elections.
This amendment does not conflict with other clauses of the Constitution and can be changed by the National Assembly with the votes of ⅔ of the total number of deputies.
When it should be changed
The constitutional regulation of a stable majority should be changed before the referendum on the major constitutional reform scheduled for 2027, to ensure that this problematic mechanism has already been removed by the time parliamentary elections are held in 2026.
For this purpose, the process of amendments should be launched as soon as possible, so that these and the subsequent amendments to the Electoral Code are completed at least one year before the elections, namely, in June 2025. Holding public discussions and receiving the opinion of the Venice Commission may take around six months.