Numerous Reports Concern Citizens' Passports Being at Embassies and Visa Centers: CEC Deputy Chairman

The Central Electoral Commission's Situational Analysis Center has received numerous reports regarding citizens' passports being held at embassies and visa centers, which has prevented them from participating in voting. This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the CEC, Nune Hovhannisyan, during a press conference.

She noted that voters are complaining about the approach of passport services that have not provided any documentation to them. “I want to emphasize that the procedure for issuing a substitute document for an identity confirming document is very clearly defined: if a voter's identity document is at a visa center, that cannot be a basis for the voter to be issued a substitute document for their identity confirming document. Those voters cannot participate in voting with any other document,” Hovhannisyan stated.

A significant portion of the reports also concern issues related to foreign voters' documents, which are diverse. For example, there are citizens who have both residence cards and have obtained Armenian passports, which enabled them to be included in the electronic voter list, but they came to vote with their residence cards. “These citizens should vote with the document with which they are included in the electronically formatted voter list,” she clarified.

Regarding other reports, the Deputy Chairman of the CEC mentioned that one of the polling stations, number 2, opened late in the morning. The CEC noted this incident and took appropriate measures. She mentioned that issues had been recorded at the polling station related to technical equipment, specifically situations where the printed ticket was incomplete. “There were tickets printed by the device that showed only half of the voter's photo, the number of the identity document was not visible, but the device confirmed it. If they were to conduct it a second time, it would have been considered an attempt at double registration,” she added.