Article 18 of the draft law proposes to amend Article 32 of the Law which regulates the suspension of a political party. It is welcomed that the draft amendments repeal Article 32 para 2 according to which a political party’s activities were suspended, inter alia, in case of the party not participating in two consecutive elections. The draft amendments also attempt to provide more clarity and specificity to the term “gross violation of law” which leads to suspensions of political parties’ activities. “Gross violation of law” is proposed to be defined as “violation, in bad faith, by a political party of the requirement or procedure prescribed by law for the restriction on entrepreneurial activities or receipt and disposal of donations or for publication of the annual statements of the political party or for provision of documents prescribed by law and failure to eliminate the violation within a 40-day period after being subjected to liability as provided for by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and after submitting a written requirement for elimination of the violation by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption”.59 It is welcome that the provision is made somewhat more concrete and a mental element is added by proscribing that the listed violation needs to have been committed in bad faith, extending the time period for rectifying the grounds leading to suspension under Article 32 and supplementing the provision with a requirement of submitting to the political party a written warning by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. Article 18 para 6 of the draft amendments would also introduce a new para 9 in Article 18 that clarifies what a political party may and may not do while its activities are suspended and state that a party’s activities may not be suspended where a political party has submitted an application to participate in upcoming elections. These are important clarifications and safeguards that provide some additional clarity for political parties.
