The European Union finances three new civil society projects in Armenia of a total amount of 850,000 euros on elections preparations and monitoring in Armenia. The projects are financed through the European Initiative for Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) budget for Armenia and include activities on civic engagement and awareness raising of first-time voters, women and people with disabilities, recently graduated journalists, general citizens and other key stakeholders as well as a social media monitoring initiative and three different election observation missions. This support runs in parallel with the European Union’s substantive contribution to the Election Basket Fund (the Contribution Agreement signed on 14 November 2018 to the amount of 1,500,000 euros) that aims at strengthening the election administration system in preparation to early parliamentary elections on 9 December 2018.
The European Union is supporting these efforts with a view to offer space for citizens to engage in electoral activities and contribute to more democratic elections in Armenia. The observations and analysis of the electoral process by civil society organisations will be shared throughout the electoral process and help Armenians in keeping well-informed about the elections preparations, the conduct of elections across the country as well as some of the impediments identified before, on elections day and after. After elections each project will develop an analytical paper on the electoral experience in Armenia and their recommendations and reflections, which will be shared both within and outside of Armenia to share more information about the contemporary political and electoral context in Armenia and include this in international discussions on electoral reforms.