Within the framework of the early elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia held on 20 June, 2021, the working group set up at the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia summarized the apparent election criminal acts as well as the results of the work carried out within the framework of the reports on non-electoral, but apparently election-related criminal acts.

The RA General Prosecutor’s Office informed.

According to this, as of 10:00 am on 22 June, 727 reports of alleged criminal offenses of the above-mentioned nature were received, 338 of which were before the voting day, 389 on the voting day and in the period after that. Of these:

• 221 are media publications;
• 241 – reports received by a natural persons, including those received through the hotline of the RA Prosecutor’s Office;
• 2 Letters from the Human Rights Defender’s Office;
• 87 – posts made by citizens on social networks;
• 171 – operative data received by police officers;

From the above-mentioned reports-alarms on criminal offenses:

• 217 refers to giving, receiving or mediating electoral bribes (Article 154.2, 154.9 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 170 for obstructing the exercise of the right to vote (Article 149 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 96 for voting more than once or for another person (Article 153 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 72 – forcing or obstructing participation in propaganda (Article 149.1 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 54 – for violating the secrecy of the ballot (Article 154 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 42 – for causing property damage related to election posters and other posters of such nature (Article 185 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 10 – for committing violence in the precinct center or in the area adjacent to its entrance (Article 149.2 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 4 – for stealing election documents or seals and other items from the polling station (Article 154.7 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 2 – violating the procedure for compiling voter lists, providing them to citizens, parties or publishing them (Article 152 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 2 – preventing the proxy, the member of the electoral commission, the observer or the representative of the mass media from getting acquainted with the electoral documents (Article 154.5 of the RA Criminal Code);
• 2 – other electoral violations,
• 56 – other alleged criminal acts that are not considered electoral, but are conditioned by the elections.

440 reports on alleged electoral violations, which were abstract in nature, were sent to the RA Police to carry out the necessary verification actions aimed at clarifying the circumstances mentioned in them. As a result of the operative-investigative measures carried out, the information available in some of the mentioned cases was not confirmed; they were left without action, in the other part, most of the inspection operations are continuing.

Out of a total of 727 reports, 287 were sent to investigative or preliminary investigation bodies for the purpose of preparing materials in accordance with Articles 180-181 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code.

As a result, during the mentioned period, criminal cases were initiated on 32 cases, of which:

• 18 were initiated on the grounds of giving and receiving electoral bribes, as well as on the grounds of mediation of electoral bribes, moreover, most of them were committed under aggravating circumstances.
• 3 – forcing or obstructing voters to participate in the campaign, including in aggravating circumstances;
• 2 – threat of violence or violence in the precinct center or in the area adjacent to its entrance, one of which was committed under aggravating circumstances;
• 1 – threatening to cause damage to property, materially interested in obstructing the exercise of the right to vote;
• 1 – forcing more than 2 persons to participate in elections, to vote for parties or alliances;
• 1 – forcing the voter to announce the result of the voting in order to violate the secrecy of the ballot;
• 1 to prepare and sell fake ballots by a group of persons with prior consent;
• 1 – to try to vote more than once,
• 4 related to wallpaper damage with property damage features.

43 persons were prosecuted in the mentioned criminal cases, 16 of which were charged, including 5 persons included in the parliamentary lists of different forces participating in the elections.

Within the framework of the admissibility of the initiated criminal cases, the results of the investigations carried out by them, the criminal prosecutions in the near future, with a certain frequency in the future, separate comprehensive information will be published by the RA General Prosecutor’s Office in the near future.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia also received 18 applications related to the right to vote in the elections, but those did not contain information on the crime envisaged by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.