Home > 2.5 Election campaign > ARMENIA - Joint Opinion on Draft Amendments to the Electoral Code and Related Legislation
 
 
 
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Paragraph 48
 

48. Notwithstanding this positive development, the draft legislation does not change the previous regulation on the control of the procedure for election campaigning, which election commissions exercise. The Venice Commission and ODIHR addressed this issue in their first 2016 Joint Opinion40 and reiterated it in their 2021 Joint Urgent Opinion.41 It was noted that there were only two options in case of violation of the campaign rules. The first was an injunction by the relevant election commission to stop the activity, or a three-day warning, which was considered too rigid by the opinion. If this approach did not work, the next step was an application to the courts to revoke the candidate's or political parties' registration. The Venice Commission and the ODIHR reiterate their recommendations to clarify which authority is in charge of enforcing this provision and to specify by law a range of straightforward and proportionate sanctions for campaign-related offences.