Head of Migration and Citizenship Service on Discrepancies in Voter Lists

Discrepancies in voter lists cannot be considered election violations. Today, during a conversation with journalists in Vagharshapat, Nelly Davtyan, the head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated, "Election fraud is generated at the moment when the right to vote is exercised; discrepancies in voter lists do not refer to election fraud."

Commenting on observations that people discovered foreign individuals registered at their addresses ahead of the Vagharshapat municipal elections, Davtyan noted, "Today, we have encountered a situation where 20 people were registered at address X in 1997 based on very proper administration, and since that day, the owner has not submitted a request stating that these people no longer live in my house, so please remove them from the registry. Those individuals also have not submitted any request that states they now live at a new address. In fact, our current legal regulation stipulates that a citizen who changes their residence is obligated to notify the competent authority of this change and update their registration within seven days, but this is not a viable regulation."

She added, "We have also encountered a similar situation where the homeowner was surprised that a minor was registered at their house. I should note that a minor is registered at the address of one of the parents and no application is required for this. This means that the homeowner gives consent for the parent, and as a result, minors are mechanically registered at that address. Such discrepancies cannot be considered election violations," said Davtyan.

Davtyan clarified that the unfamiliar individuals registered are mainly former property owners or their associated persons. She emphasized that registrations and deregistrations are processed only based on requests, which in many cases have not been made.