Why are the Authorities against Publication of Voter Lists?
After the elections nothing has been informed on publication of signed voter lists to the members of Venice Commission at the last NA meeting with the RPA faction, and formerly the Commission qualified it as violation of human rights.
Vahram Baghdasaryan, Head of NA RPA faction, told about this at the NA, touching upon the claim of the opposition on publishing of signed voter lists. “I repeat once again that the claim by the opposition to publish election lists is only a pretext. If we repeatedly say what mechanism are offered by us, what’s the problem in this regard? We have 2014 decision by the Constitutional court on this. Do you know why they claim publication of voter lists? They consider, we may agree, and after elections they’ll say that authorities have taken an anti-Constitutional step. By that they intend to cast doubt upon stability of the Constitutional court,” V.Baghdasaryan said.
To the question what hinders the authorities to publish voter lists and show they have no problem regarding it, Vahram Baghdasaryan replied, “Publication of the list means obliging people, moreover, employees of state institutions, go and participate to the elections, otherwise authorities will be disposed in other way. However, this is also one of expressions of a person’s free will, i.e. a person doesn’t want to participate in the elections and it’s secret. This also refers to those promised to certain powers. In case of publication of voter lists it’ll be possible to know whether those, who promised, took part in the elections or not. It’s a mechanism in itself, which puts people in some frameworks. Their purpose is inciting the public after elections.”
He also added that it’s clearly enshrined in the draft bill of the Electoral Code that just after elections any proxy or an observer may submit an application and request the voter list of any polling station. They may take any note without taking a picture or filming. If he/she observes overt violations, he/she applies to the court, and the latter uncovers it. Is there anything not clear, that they insist on publication of voter lists?” Baghdasaryan said. To the question why the authorities didn’t trust development of the Electoral Code just from the very start, V.Baghdasaryan noted that after 2013 presidential elections, S.Sargsyan, RA president, in a meeting with Raffi Hovhannisyan, head of “Heritage” Party, proposed to develop a working group, which would cover development of Constitutional changes, after which—the Electoral Code.
V.Baghdasaryan also touched upon Levon Zurabyan’s, head of ANC faction, offer on holding discussions on the Electoral Code upon 4+4+4 principle, pursuant which a working group will be initiated to hold discussions, in which respectively 4 representatives from the authorities, the opposition and the civil society will be included.
“We are ready for discussion by any format. I once touched upon it. We are ready for discussion upon a format proposed by them,” he noted.
V.Baghdasaryan mentioned that the opposition made such a proposal, which is quite acceptable. He said he supported the offer of provision of filming in the polling stations, however, it should be in a reasonable format, so that problems won’t emerge.
“We should understand how to do it, so that additional problems didn’t emerge. For instance, in one polling station the equipment mail fail to operate, and then they’ll say it’s done by the authorities. We should seriously discuss the issue of restriction of media and observers, the issue of national minorities, how they may participate in the elections,” he added.
Reflecting on the proposal of cleaning-up the voter lists by the opposition, V.Baghdasaryan said, “What do they want to clean-up? They propose to choose 11 thousand people, pass from door to door and make inquiries. The best mechanism for it is organization of voting through ID cards. We agree, let’s take the money promised by international organizations, allocate ID cards to everyone, and all issues will be settled. We agree on all the variants, we only need to solve financial and technical issues, and negotiations on them are in process.”
By Armine Vardanyan
