One of the articles of the Armenian Electoral Code stipulates that the heads of local governments in the country are to be elected by citizens who have resided in a particular community for at least one year.
Despite this restriction, the government-controlled Central Election Commission (CEC) allowed last month district administrations and police departments in Yerevan to include all city residents on the vote registers to be used in the May 31 elections of a new municipal assembly. The CEC based the decision on another Electoral Code article that sets no minimum residency requirements for Yerevan voters.
The main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) denounced the decision, saying that the clause invoked by the CEC is unconstitutional. The HAK asked the Constitutional Court to declare it null and void in an appeal lodged earlier this month.
The court decided late on Tuesday to “temporarily suspend” the clause pending the consideration of the opposition appeal. It said it expects to deliver a verdict on the suit by May 8.
The opposition alliance claims that the new registration rules are meant to allow the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its mayoral candidate, incumbent Mayor Gagik Beglarian, to get votes from their supporters and bribed voters living outside the capital. “That is being done to ensure that people not registered in Yerevan vote under government control,” Levon Zurabian, the top HAK coordinator, insisted on Wednesday.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Zurabian said that the authorities have already added 11,000 persons to Yerevan’s electoral rolls since the disputed presidential election of February 2008. He said the CEC has refused to publicized those lists so far.
The CEC could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Its chairman, Garegin Azarian, denied the fraud allegations last week.