Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan, on July 23, signed a package of amendments to Armenia’s constitutional laws governing elections and referendums. The changes make actual residence in the country a condition for participation in elections.

The package includes amendments and additions to the constitutional law “Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia,” as well as an amendment to the constitutional law “On Referendum.”

Independent Observer and several human rights organizations had called on the Armenian president to withhold his signature from the legislation, arguing that it restricts the electoral rights of citizens residing outside Armenia.

Exceptions under the new rules apply only to citizens who are abroad for studies and people sent overseas on official government assignments.

Armenia’s National Assembly passed the bill on July 3. Under the adopted rules, Armenian citizens residing abroad will be ineligible to vote unless they have spent at least 366 days in Armenia over the preceding two years. The legislation received support exclusively from Civil Contract lawmakers and Gegham Nazaryan, who had left the Hayastan Alliance.

Opponents of the measure describe it as unconstitutional. The opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction plans to contest the law’s constitutionality before the Constitutional Court.

The authorities cited an influx of Armenian citizens from Russia during the June 7 elections to justify the measure, without providing supporting figures.