“Citizen Observer” Initiative to have observers in 75 percent of polling stations
“Citizen Observer” Initiative has over 3000 observers to monitor the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Armenia. They can conduct observation mission in 1600 polling stations, which make up 75 percent of all the stations with 95 percent of the registered voters. Representative of the initiative Lusine Hakobyan announced the above-mentioned during today’s press conference, Panorama.am reports.
In her words, they have trained all the observers giving them theoretical and practical knowledge.
“We will have observers from other states as well, both Armenians and foreigners. 10 percent of the observers are from the Diaspora,” she added.
Hakobyan noted that they have tested a mechanism during the 2015 referendum, and the legislative amendments will allow it to work more effectively.
“It refers to the tool “Control”. We call on the Armenian citizens in Armenia and outside its borders to register in advance if they do not take part in the voting. In this way, we will have a database of non-voters,” she explained.
Hakobyan reminded that for the first time the name of the voters who have taken part in the elections will be released.
“Comparing the database with the released lists we will be able to reveal whether there have been voting on behalf of those people,” the member of the initiative said adding that they can apply to the court on the basis of the evidence at hand.
She reminded that voting on behalf of someone else is a crime and due to the application of such a tool, the perpetrators will be brought to responsibility.
“This is not far from reality. Those who know for sure that they cannot take part in the elections are called to actively register,” she said.
The mechanism is available in the website of the initiative.