HayPost Sorting Office, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007

As previously posted on this blog, HayPost, the Armenian postal service, is presently sending out voting notice cards to every single registered voter in the country. Last November, the national postal operator was handed over to the Dutch HayPost Trust Management Closed Joint Stock Company with the intent of bringing it into compliance with international standards. This exercise for the election might yet prove to be its first major test.

Haypost negotiated last year with government and police about delivery of the voting notice cards. Initially it seemed the government wanted to cut costs for example by only sending one notice per family. However, it was decided in the end that it will be one notice per voter. This means that Haypost has to deliver 2.3 million cards in 4 weeks. Regular postal turnover at Haypost is about 100 000 pieces a month. So in one month, their turnover will be that of 2 years.

[…]

Haypost is also dealing with printing (addresses, logos, etc) of the cards - a special print and enveloping location with equipment has been put in place.

[…]

Haypost ensured that they will do their best to deliver to everyone, fully realizing that it remains a huge operation with political risks.

From visiting the HayPost sorting office where the computerized automatic printing and enveloping of the notices is handled, things seem to be running smoothly so far with somewhere in excess of 700,000 notices having already been mailed. Currently, Haypost is turning over 100,000 notices per day although many would raise eyebrows at the 2.3 million voters apparently on the voting registry.

Indeed, I’ve already received three such notices at my apartment for my absentee landlords and their daughter who have been out of the country for the past 8 years at least. Nevertheless, the responsibility for the voter list does not lie with HayPost and their job is simply to mail to those names and addresses on the registry as supplied to them by the police. Certainly, this issue of absentee voters still being registered to vote in Armenia needs to be addressed in future elections, methinks.

ArmInfo ran a story on this today, although there have only been less than 300 such cases removed from the voters list. Some consider that the actual number runs into the tens of thousands.

The “Hot line” of RA Police has received 77 calls already in view of inaccuracies in the voter’s lists, Head of the Passport-Visa Department of RA Police, Colonel Alvina Zakaryan said at today’s press-conference.

The “Hot line” has been functioning from April 9 every day from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. All the citizens may call and inform about inaccuracies in the voting lists. According to A. Zakaryan, 497 citizens have addressed the Passport-Visa Department of RA Police, as of April 18, to get new RA passports and change the USSR passports. The General Headquarters of RA AF again passed the lists of servicemen who are in service for a fixed period. Upon the check-up results, corrections were introduced to the lists concerning 3680 people. The names of 2275 died persons were expunged from the lists as a result of check-ups. There is still the issue of specifying and expunging the names of the former owners of flat, which remain on the books along with the new ones. As a result of check-ups, 290 citizens are taken off the books and 4125 citizens are registered in their new residence places.

Regardless, this is a huge undertaking for HayPost and one that will hopefully rejuvenate the postal system here. Since I’ve been here, few people trust let alone use the mail, and it would be nice for such computerized mail shots to be used in the future for sending out utility bills or bank statements, for example. Even today, you have to physically go into the post office or the bank to discover how much you owe or to receive a statement of account.

HayPost has a web site here.

HayPost Sorting Office, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007