Local elections will be held on October 17 and November

At its special session on July 22, the Central Electoral Commission decided to change the voting days of this year’s local elections, substantiating that decision with new circumstances arising due to the early parliamentary elections. According to the CEC decision, the local elections will be held on October 17 and November 14 instead of the previously planned September 26-October 17.

“On September 23, 2020, the CEC set the dates for the 2021 local elections. Of course, at that time the CEC could not have predicted that special elections to the National Assembly would be held on June 20, 2021, which changed several circumstances, according to which the CEC is offered to reconsider the local elections scheduled for September 26 and October 17”, CEC Secretary Armen Smbatyan stated at the CEC session.

According to him, the two new factions of the newly elected parliament have the obligation to appoint members of the precinct election commission during the local elections, and the CEC is obliged to organize licensing courses for them, which requires time.

Besides, according to A. Smbatyan, there are other organizational problems that need to be solved in order to properly organize the local elections. The forthcoming elections will be the largest in their scale, taking into account the fact that last year no local elections were held due to the pandemic and martial law.

It should be reminded that this year local elections are expected in the second-third largest cities of Armenia – Gyumri and Vanadzor- where the last elections were held in 2016. Proportional elections will also be held in a number of large communities. According to the amendment to the Electoral Code adopted in June last year, in the communities with more than 4,000 voters, as well as in the multi-residential communities, the elections of the community council will be held by proportional system. This means that during all these proportional elections, the gender quota for candidates stipulated by the RA Electoral Code will be at least 30/70. In communities with a population of 4,000 voters, council members will be elected by majoritarian system, in which case the gender quota will not apply.

Full text in Armenian