Hmayak Hovhannisyan proposes formation of central election staff to prevent inaccuracies in voters’ lists.

Hmayak Hovhannisyan, Chairman of the Political Scientists’ Union of Armenia, proposes formation of central election staff to prevent inaccuracies in voters’ lists.

He made the proposal at a discussion summing up a 2-month public hearings program. Participating in the discussion were the leaders of political forces that, as Hovhannisyan noted, had great potential for running for parliament this year.

Among the participants were representatives of Free Democrats, Heritage, Prosperous Armenia Party, Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) and Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). Members of the Sardarapat movement had been invited as well. The participants discussed the issue of ensuring servicemen’s voting right.

The aim of the discussions is to prevent election rigging, Hovhannisyan said. He noted that they “issued prophetic warnings” that everything would be done to rig the elections.

The major violation is “inflating” the voters’ lists, he said.

Since 2008 presidential election in Armenia, the number of voters in Armenia has reached 2,485,000. Moreover, the census results show Armenia’s resident population to be 2,780,000.

“This means that more than 90% of Armenia’s population are voters, with the number of children of school age being 560,000, according to the official data,” Hovhannisyan said. Also, the number of children of pre-school age is 185,000. So 745,000 people have no voting right, he said.

To resolve the problem the authorities should form central election staff to deal with inaccuracies in voters’ lists.

The Political Scientists’ Union of Armenia proposes holding a plenary meeting to sum up the public hearings, with the participation of the political forces in question, on April 4. According to Hovhannisyan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will be invited to the meeting. Tigran Mukuchyan, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia, declined the invitation.