2026 Will Be a Vibrant Electoral Year, Says Central Electoral Commission Chair

2026 will be a vibrant electoral year. The first half of the year is set to feature regular parliamentary elections, followed by the most extensive local self-government elections occurring in the autumn, specifically in 46 out of 70 communities. This means that elections will take place in 65 percent of communities. This was stated by the Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Vahagn Hovakimyan, during a joint session of the permanent committees of the National Assembly.

The vibrant electoral year is the reason, according to the chair of the commission, why the budget request for the CEC for 2026 is significantly large. “2.5 billion drams will be allocated for local self-government elections, and 4 billion 451 million drams for parliamentary elections. In 2021, for local self-government elections, 1.7 billion drams were allocated from the budget, and for the early parliamentary elections in 2021, about 2.8 billion drams,” he noted.

In 2024, Armenia’s CEC was elected as a member of the management board of the International Association of Election Management Bodies. Vahagn Hovakimyan also informed that the next session of the management board of the association is planned to be held in Armenia in March 2026, during which representatives of election bodies from 18 countries will visit Armenia. Within the framework of this event, it is expected that 30 million drams will be provided to the CEC from the state budget.