Vahagn Hovakimyan, Chair of Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC), announced during a joint session of parliamentary standing committees that 2026 will be an intensive election year. Regular parliamentary elections are scheduled for the first half of the year, followed by local self-government elections in the fall across 46 of 70 eligible communities.
This means that 65% of communities will go to the polls, he noted, according to 1lurer.am .
Hovakimyan explained that the high election activity is the reason for the CEC’s boosted 2026 budget request, which exceeds 7.568 billion drams.
“2.5 billion drams will be allocated for local elections, and 4.451 billion drams for the parliamentary elections. For comparison, in 2021, the budget for LSG elections was 1.7 billion drams, and around 2.8 billion drams for the early parliamentary elections that year,” he said.
He also announced that Armenia’s CEC, elected in 2024 to the Governing Board of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB), will host the next board meeting in March 2026. Representatives from the electoral commissions of 18 countries are expected to attend. The event will require an additional 30 million drams from the state budget.
