Tweet
ARMENIAN PROSECUTORS PLEDGE TO COMBAT ELECTION FRAUD
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
April 16 2007
Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian assured on Monday election
observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe that Armenian law-enforcement authorities will do their best
to counter possible attempts to falsify the results of next month's
parliamentary elections.
Hovsepian told senior members of the OSCE's observer mission in Armenia
that he has formed special "working groups" led by senior prosecutors
and tasked with quickly examining and reacting to reports of serious
vote irregularities.
Armenia's Office of the Prosecutor-General, Police Service and
other law-enforcement bodies have been widely criticized, both
domestically and internationally, for their failure to do so during
the previous elections. There have been virtually no reported cases of
government-connected individuals prosecuted for ballot box stuffing,
voter intimidation and other election-related crimes so far. The
OSCE and the Council of Europe say this has created an atmosphere of
impunity that hampers the proper conduct of future Armenian elections.
"Electoral violations during past elections have never been
satisfactorily investigated and prosecuted," a delegation of
the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly said at the end of a
fact-finding visit to Yerevan late last week. "A climate of impunity
for electoral violations and election related violence can not be
allowed to exist in Armenia."
A statement by the Office of the Prosecutor-General cited Hovsepian as
saying that one of the ad hoc groups will investigate the most serious
instances of reported fraud. Another team will oversee similar efforts
by regional prosecutors and, if necessary, help them press charges
against individuals involved in vote rigging, he said, adding that
the prosecutors will operate in close collaboration with the police
and the National Security Service.
"Taking into consideration the past experience, we have created a
mechanism which we believe will make it easier to ensure an adequate
legal evaluation of possible violations committed during the electoral
process," Hovsepian said, according to the statement.
The chief Armenian prosecutor further assured the OSCE observers that
he is taking "all measures" to rule out his subordinates' involvement
in the election campaign and "political processes" in general.
The announced anti-fraud measures are bound to be shrugged off by
the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders have long claimed that
the authorities do not tackle the problem because they themselves
organize and benefit from falsifications.
Western governments, which are pressing hard for the freedom and
fairness of the elections, seem less pessimistic on this score. "We
don't expect perfection," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel
Fried said last week in reference to the Armenian government's handling
of the vote. "We don't expect to go from deeply flawed to perfect, but
we do expect to see substantial forward progress. That is important."
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
April 16 2007
Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian assured on Monday election
observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe that Armenian law-enforcement authorities will do their best
to counter possible attempts to falsify the results of next month's
parliamentary elections.
Hovsepian told senior members of the OSCE's observer mission in Armenia
that he has formed special "working groups" led by senior prosecutors
and tasked with quickly examining and reacting to reports of serious
vote irregularities.
Armenia's Office of the Prosecutor-General, Police Service and
other law-enforcement bodies have been widely criticized, both
domestically and internationally, for their failure to do so during
the previous elections. There have been virtually no reported cases of
government-connected individuals prosecuted for ballot box stuffing,
voter intimidation and other election-related crimes so far. The
OSCE and the Council of Europe say this has created an atmosphere of
impunity that hampers the proper conduct of future Armenian elections.
"Electoral violations during past elections have never been
satisfactorily investigated and prosecuted," a delegation of
the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly said at the end of a
fact-finding visit to Yerevan late last week. "A climate of impunity
for electoral violations and election related violence can not be
allowed to exist in Armenia."
A statement by the Office of the Prosecutor-General cited Hovsepian as
saying that one of the ad hoc groups will investigate the most serious
instances of reported fraud. Another team will oversee similar efforts
by regional prosecutors and, if necessary, help them press charges
against individuals involved in vote rigging, he said, adding that
the prosecutors will operate in close collaboration with the police
and the National Security Service.
"Taking into consideration the past experience, we have created a
mechanism which we believe will make it easier to ensure an adequate
legal evaluation of possible violations committed during the electoral
process," Hovsepian said, according to the statement.
The chief Armenian prosecutor further assured the OSCE observers that
he is taking "all measures" to rule out his subordinates' involvement
in the election campaign and "political processes" in general.
The announced anti-fraud measures are bound to be shrugged off by
the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders have long claimed that
the authorities do not tackle the problem because they themselves
organize and benefit from falsifications.
Western governments, which are pressing hard for the freedom and
fairness of the elections, seem less pessimistic on this score. "We
don't expect perfection," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel
Fried said last week in reference to the Armenian government's handling
of the vote. "We don't expect to go from deeply flawed to perfect, but
we do expect to see substantial forward progress. That is important."