Voters to Be Notified Electronically

The head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Armen Ghazaryan, presented proposed new regulations in the Electoral Code during a parliamentary discussion. According to the proposal, it is suggested to establish that the preliminary and final voter lists will be posted on the official websites of the Central Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Internal Affairs 40 days and 7 days prior to the election day, respectively.

The electoral lists must contain information about the voter's name, surname, patronymic, date of birth, registration address, and the date and time of voting, as well as the number of the voting precinct. The final list should also include information about the precinct number and the address of the precinct center. The necessity for this project arises from the need to eliminate paper notifications.

He noted that in the future, the CEC will also present a proposal for the development of a specific application, through which voters can familiarize themselves with information related to their voting precinct's address and location. He stated that preliminary manifestations of this application are currently available on the CEC's official website.

According to Armen Ghazaryan, the current regulations were adopted back in 2006. Under the existing order, the electoral lists were transferred to Haypost CJSC, which sent notifications in paper form. “In many cases, they did not reach the intended recipients and were often returned unclaimed. This method of notification is no longer effective and represents a significant cost to the state budget,” the reporter noted, informing that approximately 270 million dram was spent for this purpose during the 2023 elections in Yerevan, where there were 827,000 voters.

“The last time the voter registry, which was posted on the CEC website, was at the beginning of this month. We had 2.4 million voters. If we go by this calculation, then for the next national elections, this expense could exceed 800 million dram, and it would be an unjustified cost, considering the modern capabilities of technological advancement and methods of delivering information to people,” said Armen Ghazaryan.