Tweet
ARMENIAN OBSERVERS AGREE WITH WESTERN COLLEAGUES
By Ruben Meloyan and Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
May 14 2007
Armenia's largest vote-monitoring organization echoed on Monday
international observers' largely positive verdict on Saturday's
parliamentary elections which it said were more democratic than the
previous ones.
The non-governmental organization It's Your Choice (IYC) monitored
the election campaign and deployed about 4,000 observers in most of
the polling stations across the country on voting day.
"These elections were better and took place in a more civilized
atmosphere than the past elections," the IYC chairman, Harutiun
Hambartsumian, told RFE/RL, presenting their preliminary findings.
"Of course, there were shortcomings, violations. But there was a
clear improvement."
Hambartsumian said the Armenian authorities failed to create a level
playing field for all major contenders and used their control of
election commissions and other "government resources" to retain a
comfortable majority in the National Assembly. He said IYC observers
did not witness instances of vote buying which opposition parties
claim were widespread. But he said they did see busloads of people
transported to polling stations.
"There was busing of individuals to polling stations that became
overcrowded, complicating the voting process," Hambartsumian said.
"Besides, our observers saw ballot stuffing attempts in a number of
polling stations. There were also instances of multiple voting."
"Since those violations were not widespread, they could not have
affected election results," he added.
However, representatives of two coalitions of civic groups that
monitored the vote in the northern cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor were
far more critical of the authorities' handling of the polls as they
spoke at a news conference in Yerevan. Levon Barseghian, chairman of
Gyumri's Asparez Press Club, said he and other local NGO observers
found clear indications of widespread vote buying in Armenia's second
largest city.
"Groups of four to five people went from house to house and took voters
to polling stations throughout the day," Barseghian said. "I presume
that it had to do with vote buying. This was a very good mechanism
for dishing out vote bribes. They thereby managed to involve a large
number of people in the process."
Artur Sakunts, a human rights campaigner from Vanadzor, claimed that an
"atmosphere of fear" reigned in the city and all over the northern
Lori region even before the vote. "The so-called administrative
resources were broadly used in schools and other public institutions,"
he said. "As well as enlisting voters in the Republican and Prosperous
Armenia parties en masse, [local authorities] warned people not to
support or vote for other parties."
The leader of one of Armenia's most radical opposition groups,
meanwhile, continued to allege that supporters of the governing
Republican Party (HHK), the official election winner, illegally
voted in place of as many as 400,000 Armenians that are absent from
the country or dead. According to Nikol Pashinian, each of those HHK
loyalists was issued with several fake passports to do so.
The Armenian Police Service shrugged off the allegation on Monday.
"This statement is the product of Nikol's sick imagination, and it
is up to him to seek medical treatment," it said in a statement. The
police said only 113,000 citizens eligible voters have received new
Armenian passports over the past year.
But Pashinian stood by his allegations, saying that groups of
individuals holding several false passport each toured polling stations
across the country and illegally cast ballots for the HHK throughout
Saturday. The firebrand oppositionist offered no documentary proof
of the claims. But he said a selective verification of signed voter
lists would prove him right.
Pashinian added that the authorities plan to apply the same vote
rigging technique during the presidential election due early next
year. "Those passports are still there and several individuals,
including Serzh Sarkisian, know where they are kept because those
passports will again be used during the presidential elections,"
he told RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Ruben Meloyan and Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
May 14 2007
Armenia's largest vote-monitoring organization echoed on Monday
international observers' largely positive verdict on Saturday's
parliamentary elections which it said were more democratic than the
previous ones.
The non-governmental organization It's Your Choice (IYC) monitored
the election campaign and deployed about 4,000 observers in most of
the polling stations across the country on voting day.
"These elections were better and took place in a more civilized
atmosphere than the past elections," the IYC chairman, Harutiun
Hambartsumian, told RFE/RL, presenting their preliminary findings.
"Of course, there were shortcomings, violations. But there was a
clear improvement."
Hambartsumian said the Armenian authorities failed to create a level
playing field for all major contenders and used their control of
election commissions and other "government resources" to retain a
comfortable majority in the National Assembly. He said IYC observers
did not witness instances of vote buying which opposition parties
claim were widespread. But he said they did see busloads of people
transported to polling stations.
"There was busing of individuals to polling stations that became
overcrowded, complicating the voting process," Hambartsumian said.
"Besides, our observers saw ballot stuffing attempts in a number of
polling stations. There were also instances of multiple voting."
"Since those violations were not widespread, they could not have
affected election results," he added.
However, representatives of two coalitions of civic groups that
monitored the vote in the northern cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor were
far more critical of the authorities' handling of the polls as they
spoke at a news conference in Yerevan. Levon Barseghian, chairman of
Gyumri's Asparez Press Club, said he and other local NGO observers
found clear indications of widespread vote buying in Armenia's second
largest city.
"Groups of four to five people went from house to house and took voters
to polling stations throughout the day," Barseghian said. "I presume
that it had to do with vote buying. This was a very good mechanism
for dishing out vote bribes. They thereby managed to involve a large
number of people in the process."
Artur Sakunts, a human rights campaigner from Vanadzor, claimed that an
"atmosphere of fear" reigned in the city and all over the northern
Lori region even before the vote. "The so-called administrative
resources were broadly used in schools and other public institutions,"
he said. "As well as enlisting voters in the Republican and Prosperous
Armenia parties en masse, [local authorities] warned people not to
support or vote for other parties."
The leader of one of Armenia's most radical opposition groups,
meanwhile, continued to allege that supporters of the governing
Republican Party (HHK), the official election winner, illegally
voted in place of as many as 400,000 Armenians that are absent from
the country or dead. According to Nikol Pashinian, each of those HHK
loyalists was issued with several fake passports to do so.
The Armenian Police Service shrugged off the allegation on Monday.
"This statement is the product of Nikol's sick imagination, and it
is up to him to seek medical treatment," it said in a statement. The
police said only 113,000 citizens eligible voters have received new
Armenian passports over the past year.
But Pashinian stood by his allegations, saying that groups of
individuals holding several false passport each toured polling stations
across the country and illegally cast ballots for the HHK throughout
Saturday. The firebrand oppositionist offered no documentary proof
of the claims. But he said a selective verification of signed voter
lists would prove him right.
Pashinian added that the authorities plan to apply the same vote
rigging technique during the presidential election due early next
year. "Those passports are still there and several individuals,
including Serzh Sarkisian, know where they are kept because those
passports will again be used during the presidential elections,"
he told RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress