According to the Central Election Commission (CEC) data, on 2/18/2012, the election day, the overall number of voters was 2 529 000. During the parliamentary election that took place on May 6, 2011, that number was 2 484 000 voters; so the number of voters has increased by 45 000 in ten months (2 529 000 – 2 484 000 = 45 000). Whereas the emigrants accounted for 40 000 people. According to the census, on October 12, 2011, only 2 871 509 people lived in Armenia. If we take into account that according to the data of the migration service, in 2012, the number of emigrants was 42 700 people, and in January 2013, it was 7000, it turns out that we have 2 529 000 voters out of 2 810 000, the overall number of people who live in Armenia. If we subtract 650 000 (around 25%-26%) people under 18 years old from 2 810 000 people who live in the Republic, the number of voters will be roughly 2 160 000. The CEC has made public data, according to which the number of participants in the voting was 1 522 000 voters, which accounts for 60.2% of the overall number of voters included in voter registration lists, 2 529 000, which, however, accounts for 70.5% of the overall number of voters living in the Republic, 2 160 000. Such a turnout couldn’t have been and wasn’t the case, particularly given the fact that the leaders of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which had won 46% of the vote in the parliamentary election and didn’t call for voting for anyone, didn’t participate in the election. It is a fact that this election was much more passive, in terms of the turnout, but it has come out that 70% of the voters living in Armenia turned out, and in the region of Ararat, the turnout accounted for more than 85%, in the region of Syunik, 80% and so on. Now it is clear, isn’t it, why the voter registration lists are being inflated month by month? In order that the international observers show that the number of participants in the election was around 60% and not, say 70%, 80%, or 85%, which cannot be ensured without massive ballot box stuffing. This is the way it is.
P.S. If the emigration rate (more than 40 000 people annually) remains the same, and the number of people included in the voter registration lists increases at the same rate, in just 4 years, the number of voters included in the voter registration lists will exceed the number of people living in the Republic, including the minors accounting for 25%.
Karen MEZHLUMYAN
Lawyer
