Nominations for parliamentary candidates kicks off in Armenia.

Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) is starting today the nomination process for parliamentary candidates.

Representatives of political parties and alliances, as well as candidates from majority constituencies can submit their nomination papers beginning 9:00 am local time. The deadline for nominations is 6:00 pm, March 22. The official campaign will start on April 8 after the registration of the nominees.

The candidates intending to run for parliament in May are required to submit to the Commission an application form signed and sealed by their party’s leader.

The applications received from political alliances should be based upon the decisions of their permanent bodies and bear the signature and seal of the leaders of all the parties represented in the alliance.

Political parties are expected to submit their charters, a receipt on paying a pre-election mortgage and a notice confirming that their candidates were citizens of Armenia in the past five years and permanently resided in the country in that period.

The Commission can reject the candidates in case the documents submitted are incomplete or the political parties were dissolved or suspended or otherwise banned from operation.

Majority candidates can be represented by political parties or be self-nominated. A political party nominates its majority candidate based upon the decision of its permanent body. Each party can to propose one candidate in each constituency. Parties also have a right to nominate non-partisans.