YEREVAN. – The publicizing of the lists of the voters that have cast their ballots is problematic, not in the sense that people should not be allowed to get familiarized with these lists, but rather this refers to their official publicizing and being considered an official legal document.

The Minister of Justice of Armenia, Arpine Hovhannisyan, stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Friday.

She added that the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) of the Council of Europe has reaffirmed that the voted electors’ lists should not be publicized.

“The Venice Commission considers the publicizing of the voter lists to be one of the elements of the secrecy of the vote,” the minister said. “[But] at the same time, the Venice Commission stressed that in case of certain circumstances, the [political] parties that have run in the elections shall have an opportunity and access to get familiarized with the voters’ list.”

Armenia’s political opposition demands that the draft Election Code stipulate the publicizing of the lists of the persons who have cast ballots in the elections in the country, whereas the authorities consider this to be unconstitutional.

The draft election law has been debated during the National Assembly (NA) hearings, and this matter is expected to be put on the agenda of the next four-day NA session.

The new Electoral Code of Armenia shall be adopted by June 1.