The video surveillance cameras that are installed at polling stations were of great importance during the previous parliamentary elections, since they were enabling to form an evidence base in the future.

Ex-Prosecutor General of Armenia Gevorg Kostanyan, who now chairs the National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and Protection of Human Rights, stated the aforementioned at Friday’s committee debates on the draft amendments to the election law.

In his words, the government was actually proposing to end the use of these video cameras at election precincts.

“But the video recording and the videos were enabling to fight against ballot-box stuffing,” Kostanyan explained. “On the other hand, the video recording with a 50-meter radius was enabling to determine the actual number of voters.” This, in his view, will create a real opportunity for a respective monitoring.

Acting Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan, for his part, shared Kostanyan’s concern, and agreed with the proposal to leave the video surveillance cameras in their place during elections. 

But it remained unclear as to by what means the new video surveillance cameras will be purchased, since the authorities had given the old ones to the penitentiary system.