Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center conducts electronic monitoring of voting number of 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia

• Wednesday, September 26, 19:27

 During the elections in as many as 54 settlements the number of voters exceeded the number of residents, expert of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center Ludvig Khachatryan said on Wednesday, while presenting the results of the Center's electronic monitoring of the voting numbers of the May 6 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia.

He said that the monitoring was conducted jointly with Open Society Foundations-Armenia with a view to reveal possible violations through comparative analysis of some voting numbers as well as to come up with suggestions on how to remove the violations.

Secretary of the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia Armen Smbatyan questioned the methodology of comparing the numbers of voters and residents and advised counting servicemen as well.

At the same time, he admitted that in some electoral districts the turnout was largely overstated.

Earlier Executive Director of the Center Varuzhan Hoktanyan said that of 3,309,387 people living in Armenia, 2,494,097 or 75.4% were supposed to vote.

On Wednesday he said that one more possibility might be that some people not living in Armenia were included in the voters' lists.

He said that the major goals of the monitoring were comparing the number of permanent population and number of registered voters for all marzes, communities, Yerevan and its administrative districts; defining the dynamics of voting during the elections day; revealing true numbers of inaccuracies defined by the electoral code. Based on the results, the Center will present a number of recommendations, which will be aimed at neutralizing possible violations and conducting more transparent and lawful elections.