Lilit Chitchyan: People have to value their vote and go to the elections

On May 3, the Civil Society Partnership Network organized a flashmob called “My Vote is Power” in Yerevan as part of the project called “Voting for Changes”.

The representatives of the network’s youth wing and members of the Armenian Young Women’s Association silently conveyed the message of “My Vote is Power, My Vote is Decisive” by clipping the flyers with the message on the arms and bags of passers-by. Through this, the participants of the action called on voters to value their vote and go to the elections.


The second stop was at the Eritasardakan metro station where the young participants of the action greeted the people coming out of the metro wagons, handed them the flyers and went up the escalator with shirts reading “My Vote is Power” with the purpose of calling on people to participate in the elections.
As coordinator of the Civil Society Partnership Network Lilit Chitchyan told “Noyan Tapan”, the action wasn’t politicized. “We don’t support anyone. We simply want to talk about the right to vote and how important it is for people to go to the upcoming National Assembly elections, value their votes in these elections and in all elections for that matter.”
Chitchyan mentioned that this was the first event held within the framework of the project, the partnering organizations of the 27-member Network (Shirak Association of NGOs, “Against Arbitrary Rights” NGO and Oxfam Great Britain Armenia) organize meetings with deputy candidates in the provinces, informed them about the priorities of the project related to healthcare and agriculture and proposed to them to sign and confirm their pledges to turn the primary issues of the mentioned spheres into topics for discussion in the National Assembly. Lilit Chitchyan noted that the majority of deputy candidates signed to confirm their pledges made during the election campaign.
After the elections, the Network’s member organizations will start monitoring based on the pledges to find out how those pledges and project proposals were included in the program of this or that political party or deputy candidate and how the parties and deputies promote those issues in the National Assembly. “This monitoring will be conducted in the course of five years, but we will be able to see the first results in the fall. As they say, you have to strike while the iron is hot. In the first sitting, we have to see to what extent the deputies and political parties have raised the issues related to healthcare and agriculture and to what extent those issues are being promoted. We might not see speedy solutions, but raising those issues is already very important for us,” said Chitchyan.
During the election campaign, the partnering organizations organize the deputy candidates’ meetings with voters and hold courses on electoral rights and the main electoral process.