The government has come up with a proposal to change some language in several laws after discovering that the new identification cards to be introduced for Republic of Armenia citizens in June cannot be used for stamping during elections as required by the amended Electoral Code.

Besides the Electoral Code, some other laws will have to be edited, including the laws on citizens’ passports and identification cards.

Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan said at a government meeting on Thursday that only the passport constitutes a legal document for the country’s citizens to participate in ballots.

“It transpired during the preparation of identification cards that they cannot have any paper material, or if they have, the degree of their protection will essentially reduce. Therefore, only passports are to be used as documents for elections,” the minister explained.

Ink and stamp will be applied on several voting-related documents to exclude the possibility of multiple votes. Under Article 66, paragraph 4, of the amended Electoral Code, “the member of the commission responsible for putting a seal on the ballot envelopes and for the ballot box shall seal the ballot envelope and allow the elector to drop the ballot envelope into the ballot box only after checking the presence of a stamp in the elector’s identification document pertaining to participation in the given elections, and in case no such stamp is present, only after putting such stamp on the elector’s identification document.”

It was announced recently that a new anti-fraud mechanism will be introduced ahead of the May parliamentary elections – for the first time, voters in Armenia will have their passports dyed to indicate that they have cast a ballot. The special ink from the British company Lantrade Global will disappear off the document after 12 hours. The Government’s Reserve Fund will spend about $43,000 on the project.

Armenian citizens, who now have a single passport for domestic use and foreign trips, will need two separate ones after the introduction of biometric passports and IDs later this year.

“One passport will be valid outside Armenia and the other one inside Armenia. IDs can be alternatives to internal passports for domestic use only,” said Tovmasyan.

Since the changes will come into effect in June, they will not concern the May parliamentary elections.

Citizens will be able to use IDs as a legal document only within the Republic of Armenia, while biometrical passports will be used for trips abroad (the passport profile will include the prints of a citizen’s forefingers of both hands). Receiving such a biometrical passport will be voluntary and will come at a fee of 25,000 drams or about $65. But even after June 1 citizens will be allowed to receive or prolong their old passports that will remain valid both in Armenia and abroad.