About 20,000 residents of Martoni were denied the right to vote in elections to local government bodies following a new law adopted by the ruling Civil Contract party. This was communicated by the member of the parliamentary faction "Armenia" Gagam Manukian. The restrictions affected citizens who did not stay in the country for a certain period of time. The problem was particularly severe in Martoni, from where many of the residents leave to work abroad. Manoukian called the law discriminatory and said that because of the vague wording, citizens are in an unequal situation: some dual citizens retained the right to vote when they crossed the border with Russian passports, while those who entered and left with Armenian documents could be excluded from the voter lists.