By Lucy Papachristou
July 3 (Reuters) – Armenia’s parliament passed a law on Friday that raises the bar for citizens based abroad to be able to come home and vote, following reported efforts by Moscow to use Armenians living in Russia to influence an election last month.
A landlocked former Soviet republic, Armenia has a population of roughly 3 million and a sizable diaspora abroad, including in Russia, which says more than 2 million work there.
The Civil Contract party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won the June 7 election with 49.8% of the vote. Party lawmakers put forward the new bill soon afterwards, saying they wanted to ensure that only Armenians who were familiar with the country and understood its challenges could vote.
Reuters reported in May that Russia was intensifying covert efforts to undermine Pashinyan’s bid for re-election out of concerns he was bringing the South Caucasus country closer to the West and away from Russia, its traditional patron.
The scheme included plans to transport tens of thousands of Armenians living abroad in Russia back to Armenia to sway the vote, according to interviews with five Western intelligence officials and documents seen by Reuters.
Russia called the allegations of interference “spymania” and alleged there were violations in the conduct of the election, in which Pashinyan prevailed over the mostly pro-Russian opposition.
Under the new law, Armenian citizens can now only vote in a regular election if, 48 days before the voting day, they have lived in Armenia for at least half of the preceding two years. For snap elections, the calculation will be from 28 days before the vote.
A group of Armenian civil society organisations condemned the legislation passed on Friday as unconstitutional, writing in an open letter that it “endangers democratic principles and violates the political rights of citizens”.
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(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Alex Richardson)
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