At today's government session, the Armenian government approved the decision to make amendments to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia and other related laws. Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan presented the draft.

Harutyunyan said it’s mostly about abuse of administrative resources, given the fact that there was negative experience during the last elections. These amendments aim at preventing them, applying not only to public servants, but also employees of medical, educational and pre-school institutions. The minister says they won’t have the right to carry out pre-election campaigns not only when exercising their authority, but also when acting in their official capacity.

Harutyunyan says such a restriction will also be extended to public or community service employees, as well as state and community organizations where the state or community has more than 20% participation.

"There are also cases when a person is compelled to participate or not to participate in a campaign. Considering it as a serious and dangerous act, we are going to criminalize such cases, " he said.