Armenia’s National Assembly today unanimously passed a bill that will increase penalties for those found guilty of electoral fraud, including bribing voters.

Fines and jail sentences will be increased, and so will the time that suspects can be detained.

A proposal made by Yelk Faction MP Edmond Marukyan, making it a crime to remove a ballot from the polling station, was rejected.

Deputy Minister of Justice Artur Hovhannisyan argued that such an act is already regarded as a crime under the law.