"People are leaving Armenia while the number of voters is increasing" (video)
We are witnessing an interesting fact in the history of the Third Armenian Republic: people are leaving Armenia while the number of voters is increasing. The number of eligible voters has increased by 400 000 in Armenia since the independence referendum, says opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinyan. “Citizens registered in consular agencies should be removed from the voters’ lists and revoked from their citizenship as they are no longer citizens of Armenia. The package you have proposed does not envisage this provision which is unacceptable,” Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday during the discussion of the draft law on introducing amendments and addenda to the law on “State Register of the Population." Pashinyan then asked how many people had been removed from the electoral register since the adoption of the law in 2002. “While I understand your concerns, I should say that they have nothing to day with today’s discussion,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan. According to Pashinyan when people go to a consulate in a foreign country, the data must be sent to the State Population Register of Armenia and the corresponding community in order to remove that person from the registry. “The draft law implies that the name of a person, who, for example, is registered in a consulate in Washington, can also be found in the electoral list in Sisian community and he/she may even ‘go to the polls’ on the election day,” said Pashinyan. Kocharyan promised to study the issue and respond to Nikol Pashinyan before the second reading.
