“We have repeatedly mentioned that the publication of the voters’ lists is controversial, not in the terms that people do not have a chance to familiarize with the lists. We speak about the official publication when they can be published in an official form of and regarded as an official legal document. The publication of the voters’ lists is regarded as an element of election secrecy by the Venice Commission”,- Arpine Hovhannisyan, the RA Minister of Justice said in the interview with the journalists.
According to her, the Council for Democratic Elections of Venice Commission at its plenary session on 10 March, 2016, discussed the issue of publication of the citizens’ list who took part in voting , re-approved its position, according to which, the list of voters should not be published. At the same time, the Venice Commission have emphasized that under the certain circumstances, the parties taking part in voting, should have a chance and accessibility for familiarizing with the voter lists.
“It is obvious that this formulation reconfirms once and again that the Venice Commission makes a distinction between the official publication of the voters’ lists and familiarizing with those. We believe that this approach, which is currently fixed in the Draft Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, provides opportunity for the proxies to familiarize with the list of the voters without a request of recount, moreover to make statements, compare with the previously published list, actually it provides a guarantee for accessibility of the voters’ lists,”- concluded the minister.
