14.1 Candidates for President of the Republic can be nominated by parties (party blocs) and by citizens (who have the right to vote) of the Republic of Armenia by civil initiative.

14.2 A party (party bloc) implements its right to nominate a candidate for President of the Republic by submitting the respective decision of its supreme body (or the decision of the supreme body of a party bloc) to the CEC; and citizens through the presentation of its respective group sponsoring the civil initiative to the CEC and its registration as a nominating group.

14.3 The decision of the supreme body of the party to nominate a candidate for President of the Republic has to contain in obligatory manner the data on nominated candidate as prescribed by this law. The permanently active supreme body of the party (party bloc) submits the data for not more than two authorized representatives for the registration in the Central Electoral Commission.

14.4 Any citizen of the Republic of Armenia who has the right to vote can receive, from the Central Electoral Commission, forms necessary for the realization of the civil initiative.

14.5 The following information has to be submitted to the CEC for the registration of a candidate nominated by civil initiative:

1) Necessary data on initiative group in a manner prescribed by CEC;

2) The form of nomination for a candidate for President of the Republic, filled in the prescribed manner, containing at least 1,000 signatures of voters supporting the civil initiative;

3) Data on not more than two authorized representatives of the initiative group.

14.6 Any form of nomination of a candidate for President of the Republic includes data on the candidate for President of the Republic prescribed by this Article. Each voter supporting the civil initiative signs the nomination form personally.

14.7 Each party (party bloc) or initiative group can nominate one candidate for President of the Republic.

14.8 The documents necessary for the nomination of a candidate for President of the Republic must be submitted to the Central Electoral Commission by parties and initiative groups within the time frame prescribed by this law.

14.9 The Central Electoral Commission, not later than within three days [of receiving a nomination], checks the validity of the decision of the superior body of the party (party bloc) or the validity of at least 1000 signatures collected by the initiative group of citizens in the manner of civil initiative; issues to the party (party bloc) or to theinitiative group, through their authorized representatives registered at the Central Electoral Commission, one day prior to the deadline set for the support of nomination, the forms of support of the nomination of the candidate for President of the Republic, mentioning in obligatory manner the family name and first name of the recipient and the grounds for registering the corresponding person as an authorized representative. The validity of signatures presented in forms of nomination by initiative groups in the manner of civil initiative are checked in the manner prescribed by Article 16 of this law.

14.10 Each party (party bloc) or initiative group organizing the nomination of a candidate for President of the Republic appoints the persons who are authorized to collect signatures in support of the nomination and issues certificates to them.

14.11 A candidate for President of the Republic is recognized as nominated if his nomination is supported by 25,000 voters through their signatures. Each voter signs the forms in support of nomination of a candidate personally.

14.12 Mentioned in the nomination documents for a candidate for President of the Republic, and in each form supporting the nomination must be the family name and first name of the candidate, the date of birth, the address, the place of employment, occupation, and to what party he/she belongs.

Article 15. Registration of candidates

15.1 Any candidate for President of the Republic can be registered by nomination of a party (party bloc) or an initiative group.

15.2 Documents for registering a candidate for President of the Republic are received by the CEC, which discusses the issue of that candidate’s registration only if the following nomination documents are submitted within the time frame set by this law:

1) Documents in support of nomination for a candidate for President of the Republic, completed in the manner prescribed by Article 14 of this law;

2) A receipt showing payment of an electoral deposit of 2 million drams to the united fund for elections;

3) A certificate mentioning his/her citizenship of the Republic of Armenia for the last ten years;

4) A certificate mentioning his/her residence for the last ten years;

5) A declaration of incomes for the candidate for the previous year;

6) A written declaration of the candidate agreeing to his/her nomination by certain party (party bloc) or initiative group, submitted personally or by a representative authorized by him in the manner prescribed by the law.

15.3 If a candidate nominated for President of the Republic is under detention, then the documents prescribed in the first part of this article are submitted to Central Electoral Commission 60 days prior to the day of elections. At the submission of documents, a written declaration is also submitted on the fact of detention of the candidate. The Central Electoral Commission appeals to the Supreme Court to change or eliminate the detention of a candidate as a pre-trial measure immediately after receiving the corresponding documents. The Supreme Court pronounces a final judgement in a collective manner on the mentioned issue within three days. The Central Electoral Commission discusses the issue of registration of the mentioned person, if the Supreme Court pronounces judgement on changing or eliminating the pretrial measure.

15.4 After accepting the necessary documents for registration of a nominated candidate for President of the Republic by the Central Electoral Commission and until the registration of candidacy, the candidate or person authorized by him/her has the right to be present at sessions of the Central Electoral Commission with an advisory vote.

15.5 Registration of candidates for President of the Republic can be rejected by the CEC if:

1) According to verification in the manner prescribed in Article 16 of this law, the number of valid signatures on the forms in support of the nomination of a candidate for President of the Republic is less than 25,000;

2) Obvious falsifications are revealed in nomination documents presented for registration;

3) the restrictions, prescribed by the constitution are valid for the candidate.

15.6 The Central Electoral Commission rejects the registration of a nominated candidate for President of the Republic upon a 2/3 vote of committee membership. 

15.7 In case of rejection of the registration of a nominated candidate for President of the Republic, its his/her electoral deposit is returned. 

15.8 The registration of a candidate is recognized as invalid by Central Electoral Committee, if facts are revealed after registration according to which the restrictions prescribed by the constitution are valid for the candidate.

15.9 In case the registration of a candidate for President of the Republic is considered as invalid, his/her electoral deposit and the funds available in his/her campaign account are transferred to state budget.

15.10 The decision of the Central Electoral Commission to refuse to register a candidate or to recognize a registration as invalid, can be appealed to Supreme Court within three days.

15.11 The Supreme Court pronounces its judgement in a collective manner within five days of receiving the application and that judgement is final.

15.12 A person is recognized as registered or re-registered as a candidate for President of the Republic, based on the judgement of the Supreme Court on recognition of the decision of Central Electoral Commission or rejecting the registration of a candidate or on recognition of registration as invalid, as illegitimate.

15.13 A person registered as a candidate for President of the Republic is released from regular military service, recruitment, military training camps.

15.14 After receiving the documents for the registration of a candidate for President of the Republic by the Central Electoral Commission, and also after his/her registration, the mentioned person can bear administrative or criminal responsibility in legal form only by the consent of Central Electoral Commission. The decision of the Central Electoral Commission is final.

15.15 After receiving the documents for the registration of a candidate for President of the Republic by the Central Electoral Commission, and also after his/her registration, detention can be applied to him/her as a pretrial measure by a decision of the Supreme Court only. The Supreme Court pronounces its judgement in a collective manner on this issue within three days and that judgement is final.

15.16 In case of application of detention as a pretrial measure to a registered candidate for the President of the Republic, the registration of a candidate is considered as invalid and his electoral deposit is returned, and the funds remaining in his campaign account are transferred to the state budget.

15.17 Communiqués on the registration of candidates is published by the Central Electoral Commission.

Article 16. Procedure for verifying signatures on forms of nomination for candidates and on forms supporting the nomination of candidates

16.1 Forms for the nomination of candidates and forms for supporting the nomination of a candidate are notebooks with consecutively numbered pages, each of which contains 500 lines with consecutive numbers for names, places of residence, passport numbers, and the signatures of the voters.

16.2 On each page of the form, the number of the form is mentioned.

16.3 At the end of each page of the form, a special line is reserved for the signature of the voter receiving the form from the Central Electoral Commission.

16.4 At the end of each page of the form, a special line is reserved for the signature of the person responsible for collecting the signatures.

16.5 At the end of each form a special line is reserved for the surname, first name, permanent residence, passport number and signature of the person collecting the signatures.

16.6 Each voter can receive three forms for the introduction of a civil initiative. Each authorized person of the party (party bloc) or initiative group receives 80 forms for supporting the nomination of a candidate.

16.7 Signatures are recognized as invalid if they are falsified or belong to a person who has no right to vote, along with signatures of those voters whose data on the form are filled incorrectly.

16.8 The validity of signatures on the forms is checked by the CEC by a process of selectively checking of two percent of the signatures in each form. For that purpose CEC conducts the following: 

1) Finds upon selection of a random sample of the signatures from the given form in the amount of two percent. For that purpose, the consecutive numbers of signatures in the given form are used; registers in protocol the numbers of the signatures for verification on each form, with the corresponding data of the voter;

2) Composes a protocol on the invalid signatures found in forms in the manner prescribed by itself, mentioning the number of the form, the number of the signature and the voter’s data;

3) Extends the ratio of valid and invalid signatures which constitute two percent proportionally to the number of all signatures collected in the forms. According to this procedure the amount of valid and invalid votes in the total number of signatures is obtained. A protocol is composed on the results of checking;

16.9 Copies of all protocols on results of checking of the validity of signatures are handed to the candidate or authorized person immediately upon his/her request.

Article 17. Recognizing the registration of candidates as void

17.1 A candidate can terminate his/her registration by submitting an application to reject his/her nomination to the CEC not later than five days prior to the day of the elections. In the second stage, in case of a declaration by one of the candidates of his/her rejection of nomination, the next candidate receiving a plurality of the votes in the first stage will participate in the elections. And if there is no such candidate then only one candidate will participate in the elections in the second stage.

17.2 Registration of a candidate is considered void based on the rejection of a candidate’s nomination, and his/her electoral deposit is returned, and the funds remaining in candidate’s campaign account are used for charity within two months after the rejection of candidates nomination according to his wish. After two months the funds remaining in a candidate’s (who has rejected his/her nomination) campaign account are transferred to the state budget.

17.3 The registration of a candidate is considered as void in case of his/her death and also in the manner prescribed by Article 15, part 15 or Article 19, part 10 of this law.

17.4 If the registration of a candidate is considered as void in the mentioned cases, not later than five days prior to the second stage of the elections, then the next candidate receiving a plurality of the votes in the first stage will participate in the elections, and if there is no such candidate, then one candidate will participate in the elections. If the registration of a candidate is considered as void in mentioned cases during five days preceding the day of elections, then one candidate will participate in the elections.

17.6 If the registration of a candidate is recognized as void in case of his/her death and also in the manner prescribed by Article 19, part 10 of this law, then his electoral deposit and the means remained in his/her campaign fund are transferred to state budget.

Article 18. Proxies

18.1 To represent the interests of the candidates after their registration in the respective Electoral Commissions in the manner prescribed by the CEC, upon the presentation by the candidates, not more than two proxies for each Electoral Commission are registered. Proxies are issued certificates.

18.2 Proxies represent the interests of the candidates in relations with the state and other bodies, and have the right to be present concurrently at sessions of the respective Electoral Commissions.

18.3 Not more than one proxy from each candidate may be present concurrently at a function of an Electoral Commission.

18.4 The registration of a proxy is invalidated and a new proxy is registered based on application by the candidate.

18.5 Proxies have the right of an advisory vote in the respective Electoral Commissions.

18.6 A proxy cannot be a member of any Electoral Commission.

Article 19. Pre-election campaigning

19.1 Citizens of the Republic of Armenia, candidates for President of the Republic, parties (party blocs), and civil initiative groups have the right to freely campaign in favor or against a nominated candidate, within the framework set by laws of the Republic of Armenia.

19.2 Law enforcement bodies, military subunits, military organizations, and members of Electoral Commissions have no right to campaign in favor or against a candidate for President.

19.3 Campaigning, or organizing events for that purpose, is forbidden in buildings allocated for the work of Electoral Commissions.

19.4 The CEC, within the limits of the means available in the united electoral fund, provides equal opportunities for the registered candidates for President of the Republic, for parties (party blocs) and initiative groups nominating them to use, free of charge, the state mass media.

19.5 Campaigning free of charge through the means of state radio and the press is conducted on equal basis in the manner prescribed by the CEC for all registered candidates for President of the Republic, the parties (party blocs) and initiative groups, within the limits prescribed by the Central Electoral Commission.

19.6 A candidate for President of the Republic has an equal right along with other candidates to use 90 minutes live TV transmission free of charge. Upon the consent of the candidate this time may be used by party (party bloc) and initiative group nominating him/her.

19.7 Candidates for the President of the Republic, parties (party blocs) and initiative groups nominating them can use the means of state mass media also on a commercial basis, paid from the candidate’s fund, but not more than for 180 minutes for TV transmission and not more than double the amount of the limit set by the Central Electoral Commission for free of charge transmission when using radio and the press.

19.8 Parties (party blocs), initiative groups, and candidates for President of the Republic have the right to organize according to legislation of the Republic of Armenia as a part of pre-election campaigning, rallies, marches meetings with electors and other mass events.

19.9 Parties (party blocs), initiative groups, and registered candidates for the President of the Republic have the right to print and disseminate without prohibition, posters, lists and other printed campaign materials.

19.10 During the pre-election campaign it is forbidden for candidates, either in person or through other persons, to allocate funds, food, other goods or gifts to the voters. In such cases, the Supreme Court discusses any appeal within five days in a collective manner and pronounces judgement on the availability of the fact. In case of confirmation of the fact by the court the registration of a candidate is considered as void.

19.11 Pre-election campaigns begin 30 days prior to the day of elections. On the day of voting, it is forbidden to campaign, have rallies, marches, or for people to congregate in the vicinity of the voting centers.