Just days after the June 7 parliamentary elections, Pashinyan’s Ruling Party moves to introduce a bill that would prevent many Armenian citizens from voting in future parliamentary elections and national referendums unless they spend at least half the year in Armenia.
Under the proposal, citizens would be required to spend at least 183 days in Armenia during the year preceding an election in order to cast a ballot.
If adopted, the measure would affect labor migrants, seasonal workers, Armenians employed abroad, and tens of thousands of the Armenian diaspora who retain Armenian citizenship but spend much of the year outside Armenia.
The initiative comes in the immediate aftermath of an election campaign during which the ruling party failed to secure constitutional majority and its supporters repeatedly highlighted the participation of Armenian citizens traveling from Russia to vote.
Critics note that the same electoral framework has been in place for years and was never portrayed as a concern when it benefited the current political establishment, raising questions about the timing of the proposal.
The bill was introduced by ruling party MPs Arusyak Manavazyan and Alkhas Ghazaryan, who argue that citizenship alone should not be sufficient to participate in national elections and that voters should maintain a meaningful connection to Armenia through physical presence in the country.
While some countries impose residency or physical-presence requirements for voting, many democracies allow citizens living outside the country to participate in national elections regardless of where they reside.
