In 2022-2023, local self-government elections were organized and held in 24 communities of Armenia, 21 of them with proportional electoral system, and 3 with majoritarian system. In 2023, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) verified the validity of the signatures collected by the initiative group created by 1 civil initiative to propose a draft law to the National Assembly in accordance with the legislation. This was stated by the Chairman of the CEC Vahagn Hovakimyan, presenting the report on the activity of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Armenia for 2022-2023 at the regular sitting of the National Assembly on May 2.
On March 27, 2022, snap election of the Council of Elders was held in Vedi community, and local self-government elections in 18 communities in September. There was no judicial appeal of the election results in the mentioned communities.
Vahagn Hovakimyan referred to the trainings and tests organized by the CEC for the members of precinct electoral Commissions.
Local self-government elections were held in 4 communities of the country in 2023. There was a judicial appeal of the results of the elections only in connection with the Sisian community elections, but the court rejected the appeal.
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The rapporteur also presented the works carried out by the CEC aimed at ensuring the transparency, publicity and accessibility of the elections.
Speaking about the 2023 elections of the Yerevan Council of Elders, the CEC Chairman pointed out that in case of this election as well, no application was received to appeal the results of the voting in court. 13 parties and 1 alliance of parties were nominated to participate in the Yerevan Council of Elders elections, which were registered.
Vahagn Hovakimyan answered the MPs’ questions and gave clarifications.
The MP Zaruhi Batoyan inquired about the issue of accessibility for people with disabilities to participate in voting. In particular, she said that available polling stations are published on the CEC website, and she tried to use this right during the Yerevan Council of Elders elections by submitting the relevant application. The result was that she had to visit the passport office 3 times in order to participate in the election once. “I would like to know whether analyzes and studies have been done after the elections, and whether the steps necessary to improve these mechanisms have been outlined,” she asked.
Vahagn Hovakimyan explained that the list of the available polling stations is posted on the CEC website from the beginning of 2023, and all the polling stations are assessing their availability. For example, 183 out of 475 polling stations in Yerevan were accessible. He informed that the problem that arose in the passport office was due to the fact that the employees were not sufficiently informed.
During the exchange of ideas, the MPs of the opposition and ruling factions addressed the issue of political neutrality and independence of the CEC Chairman, the legality of the CEC Chairman’s election as the CEC Chairman, voters’ rights, the importance of holding democratic and transparent elections, the past election frauds and other issues.
In his final speech, Vahagn Hovakimyan touched upon the observations made and gave clarifications.
According to the Constitutional Law the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, the report was taken as a note.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
