Vladimir Vardanyan on Declaring a State of Emergency During Elections

Deputy Vladimir Vardanyan from the ruling party, during a conversation with journalists, announced that the working group on declaring a state of emergency during the voting process needs to hold discussions. It is noteworthy that during the extraordinary session of the National Assembly held days ago, a draft amendment was included in the "Constitutional Law on the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia", which pertains to declaring a state of emergency during elections.

According to the draft, if a state of emergency or martial law is declared during voting (before the counting of votes is completed or the final results are recorded), the electoral process will be suspended, and a new voting will be organized after the cancellation of the state of emergency or martial law.

“All contentious provisions related to emergency and martial law have been discussed and removed both during the extraordinary session and in the committee. The legislation on emergency and martial law and its correlation with electoral legislation should become a separate subject for discussion. We will discuss it once the draft is ready. There are no deadlines, but we have now agreed that the working group's activities will continue later; the topic is sensitive,” Vardanyan noted.

Vardanyan emphasized that it is essential to find the delicate threshold that will ensure citizens' votes are protected so that they are not adversely affected during states of emergency or martial law. Additionally, the deputy assured that no one intends to utilize or discuss the institution of a state of emergency in a political context. According to him, the issue began to be discussed since there have previously been incidents where unsafe situations developed at the Armenian border during electoral processes.