“Dear HETQ I am Grigor Simonyan, citizen of Armenia. Presently, for educational reasons, I live in the Great Britain. I have called to the Armenian Embassy in London to check up for further details about how I can use my right to vote from the Embassy. Due to the legislative changes Armenian Government introduced, the embassies do not function as voting polls now. Therefore, I have lost my vote.

The legislative changes do deprive me and many other Armenians to participate in the elections. Nevertheless, I find it absolutely unacceptable, especially if no alternative is offered instead (electronic voting or voting by mail).

I believe, especially in the case of Armenia, when there are many Citizens abroad, the law can be a good excuse and a opportunity for mass falsifications. I am writing to express my disagreement and anger on the occasion. I do hope the problem will be voiced and that international observers will take it into account.

Best Regards, 
Grigor”

This is one of the e-mails Hetq received from the citizens of Armenia living or currently staying abroad.

On our request to comment on the letters the Central Electoral Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the Armenian Embassies in foreign countries were informed about the changes in the Electoral Code concerning voting rights of the Armenian citizens currently living abroad and therefore it was their duty to inform those in the country. As well as several press conferences were organized in Yerevan on this issue.

In February 26, 2007 the National Assembly of Armenia accepted the law “About changes and additions to the Electoral Code” by which the First article in the Electoral Code was supplemented with the following point: “In the Republic of Armenia the elections are held only in the territory of the Republic of Armenia”.

According to the same law the 6 th and 7 th points of the Article 10 in the Electoral Code were considered invalid. They represented the voting rights and order of the citizens of Armenia living abroad.

HETQ will get back to the issue in more details next week.