Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Thursday that political parties and alliances running in the upcoming parliamentary elections may include candidates from the country’s four largest ethnic minorities—Yezidis, Russians, Assyrians, and Kurds—in a special second section of their electoral lists, clarifying how the Electoral Code’s minority-representation provisions are meant to work.
Citing the 2022 national census, the CEC listed the four largest ethnic minority communities permanently residing in Armenia as Yezidis (31,079), Russians (14,076), Assyrians (2,755), and Kurds (1,663). Under the Electoral Code, parties and alliances are allowed to add a second part to their electoral list reserved for representatives of these groups as identified in the most recent census.
The commission said this second part is divided into four separate sections—one for each community—with up to four candidates from each minority group eligible to be nominated in the relevant section. If a party or alliance decides not to nominate a representative from one of the minorities, that section of the list is left blank.
The CEC also clarified that a candidate nominated as an ethnic-minority representative in the second part of the list may also appear in the main, first part of the party’s electoral list at the same time.
