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By the RA Governmental Decree N 269-N, on May 17, 2015, community consolidation referenda were held in seven communities in Lori Marz (Region), Republic of Armenia. The referenda sought the positions of the community residents on consolidating some communities by asking them the question below: “Do you agree that Tumanyan, Martz, Karinj, Lorut, Shamut, Atan and Ahnidzor communities consolidate in a single community named Tumanyan Community, with Tumanyan community center, Tumnanyan, Koberi station, Marts, Karinj, Lorut, Shamut, Atan, Ahnidzor settlements?” The concept for community consolidation and formation of inter-communal associations is based on the fact that due to lacking resources, the local governments in the small communities are unable not only to effectively fulfill their functions, but also cover the local government expenditures. There are many reasons for the lack of resources, namely the continuously decreasing budget revenues, decreased land tax revenues due to unused lands and emigration. In such a situation, the consolidation of communities might help to achieve significant results in mobilizing and most efficient management of the current resources. At the same time, the HCA Vanadzor is concerned about the inadequate awareness of the community population within the community consolidation decision-making processes, which obstructs their meaningful participation. On the other hand, the legal regulations for the local community consolidation referenda arouse serious concerns. Article 107 of the RA Constitution stipulates as follows: “… The community members may directly take part in the administration of the community affairs by resolving the issues of local significance through local referenda. The law shall define the procedure for conducting a local referendum.” At the same time, Article 110 of the RA Constitution reads as follows, “The communities may, based on the interests of the public, be merged with each other or separated by the law. The relevant law shall be adopted by the National Assembly upon the recommendation of the Government. Before submitting the legislative initiative, the Government shall hold local referenda in such communities. The outcomes of the local referenda shall be attached to the legislative initiative. The communities may be merged or separated irrespective of the outcomes of the local referenda”. Articles 107 and 110 of the Constitution show an apparent contradiction in terms of resolving community issues through a local referendum. By the way, it is noteworthy that some time ago the RA Constitutional Court found in its ruling that community population was also unable to decide on impeaching the head of community through local referendum. The RA Law on Local Referendum reads as follows: “Article 36. Enforcing Decrees Adopted through Local Referendum: The decrees of local government adopted through local referendum shall be enforced within 5 days upon publication of the Territorial Electoral Commission’s decree on the referendum results, unless these results are appealed before a court of law. If they are appealed, the local government decree adopted through local referendum shall become effective at the moment of the court ruling announcement, unless otherwise provided under the ruling.” The decrees adopted by local referendum shall be amended only by local referendum. Thus, the RA Constitution stipulates the citizens’ competence to participate in community governance through local referenda and at the same time restricts such competence in fundamental processes like community consolidation. On the other hand, Article 36(3) of the Law on Local Referenda reads that local referenda results in decisions and not in opinions as in case of social surveys. Thus, such controversial legal regulations also have a negative impact on the positions expressed by the community population on community consolidation. It can be argued that the community population takes a merely formal part in decision-making on community consolidation. That is to say, here we face, from a more systemic viewpoint, another factor creating deeper public distrust in the institute of election. Apart from the existing legal issues, the HCA Vanadzor is also concerned over the vicious practices during the referenda. Prior to the local referenda of May 17, 2015, the HCA Vanadzor received an alert that the Lori Marz Regional Government Office had ordered all the communities to provide positive referendum results at any cost. To ensure civic participation and positive results, the community council members were engaged to fulfill the functions of oversight leverage. When compared against the list of community council members (source: elections.am), the list of the local territorial electoral commissions shows that apart from the family of community council members involved in almost every commission, the list of commission members in Lori Marz Tumanyan and Martz communities also included community council members Ashkhen Arzymanyan and Manushak Sargsyan respectively (by the way, the names of both of them are mentioned without their patronymics in the commission member lists) which constitutes a violation of Article 39(2) of the RA Electoral Code: “2. The electoral commissions shall not include persons convicted of crimes under Articles 149-154.6 of the Republic of Armenia Criminal Code. Territorial and district electoral commissions shall not have members from among the deputies of the National Assembly, members the Constitutional Court, judges, prosecutors, Investigation Committee or Special Investigation Service officers, ministers and their deputies, regional governors (marzpet) and their deputies, heads of communities and community council members, as well as officers of the police, national security service, Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service and penitentiaries, military servicemen, proxies, authorized representatives, observers and candidates”. According to the information received by the HCA Vanadzor, the community council members above were appointed in the territorial electoral commissions directly upon request of the Lori regional governor’s office. Hence, the issues and violations we recorded in the community consolidation process come to seriously jeopardize the crucial changes that would again fail to bring the expected results due to the unskillful and negligent implementation.