Ahead of the elections, one of the most discussed topics in the Armenian society has become the issue of “dusting” of votes. The former vice-president of the National Assembly, Arpine Hovhannisyan, explained the mechanisms of the distribution of mandates with specific mathematical examples and called on the citizens to participate in the voting.
In his first message, the politician clearly denied the thesis that the votes given to the parties that did not pass the temporary threshold disappear. According to the legislation, the parliament must consist of at least 101 deputies. Hovhannisyan gave a hypothetical example of 100 voters, where 70 votes were distributed among the three leaders (40, 20 and 10), and the remaining 30 went to the backbenchers. According to the Electoral Code, these 30 “lost” votes are not canceled. they are proportionally redistributed among the victorious powers.
As a result, the leading party with 40 real votes receives a disproportionate share of the bonus seats, eventually reaching 58 parliamentary seats. This, according to the former deputy speaker, is precisely the “dusting”, when the votes of the smaller parties actually work in favor of strengthening the favorites in the race.
In his next statement, Hovhannisyan made another, more important adjustment. the greatest “dusting” occurs due to low participation. Refusal to go to the polls only means that the vote of the absentee citizen is mathematically redistributed in favor of the biggest political players.
The politician emphasized that there are at least three political forces in Armenia that are capable of overcoming the temporary threshold, so citizens who do not want to support the favorites should carefully study the programs of alternative parties that have a chance to enter the parliament.
Hovhannisyan also dispelled the widespread myth that this mathematical model is an innovation of the current Constitution, reminding that similar mandate distribution formulas with different variations have been used in Armenia since 1995.
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