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Armenia: Yerevan Vote Is Deja Vu All Over Again

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  • Armenia: Yerevan Vote Is Deja Vu All Over Again

    ARMENIA: YEREVAN VOTE IS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
    Marianna Grigoryan

    Eurasianet
    http://www.eurasianet.org
    June 1, 2009

    Armenians appear headed for another round of election-related acrimony
    following a contentious Yerevan Council Election on May 31. As in
    recent national elections, official results favored the governing
    Republican Party of Armenia by a wide margin. Opposition supporters
    complained bitterly about irregularities, but, as in the past,
    international observers offered only cautious criticism.

    The vote marked the first time a Yerevan mayor was determined
    on the basis of the City Council election results, rather than
    by presidential appointment. With that significance in mind, media
    presented the election as a second chance for the political comeback of
    ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian, the lead candidate for the Armenian
    National Congress (ANC), after his defeat in the 2008 presidential
    elections. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    But, based on preliminary official results, Ter-Petrosian's comeback
    stalled almost as soon as it began. The Republican Party secured
    more than 46 percent of the ballots cast, easily enough to ensure
    that its top council candidate -- incumbent mayor Gagik Beglarian --
    would retain his post.

    Government coalition member Prosperous Armenia, a deep-pocketed
    contender headed by oligarch Gagik Tsarukian, garnered roughly 22
    percent of the vote, while the opposition Armenian National Congress,
    headed by former president Ter-Petrosian, finished a distant third,
    with some 17 percent of the vote.

    The Rule of Law Party, a government coalition member, and the
    nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation failed to make the cut
    for seats in the 65-member city council. Turnout was placed at 52.85
    percent of Yerevan's 771,477 eligible voters.

    To protest the results, Ter-Petrosian announced a rally in central
    Yerevan for the evening of June 1. The former Armenian president
    declined to field reporters' questions on election day, however,
    and has not released a statement. In a May 31 press conference,
    senior ANC member Levon Zurabian charged that the government would
    focus on falsifying the vote count.

    It would seem that even some government agencies see the possibility
    of wrongdoing. According to a report distributed by the Interfax
    news agency, the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office has called
    for a recount in eight voting precincts. Prosecutor General Agvan
    Hovsepyan indicated that his office may open a criminal investigation.

    Even so, in an apparent warning to Ter-Petrosian supporters, Prime
    Minister Tigran Sarkisian underlined the need for Armenian politicians
    to learn how to "have the courage to accept defeat gracefully."

    "These are . . . partly mayoral elections," commented independent
    political analyst Yervand Bozoian. "It's a [national] political
    struggle, in fact."

    And like the 2008 presidential elections, it was a struggle that
    occurred amid accusations of electoral skulduggery.

    The opposition Heritage Party's representative to the Central Election
    Commission refused to sign the final vote protocol as a result of what
    she termed "large-scale election fraud." "Signing the document would
    mean concluding a bargain with the authorities," Zoya. Tadevosian said,
    A1plus.am news site reported.

    Attacks against journalists headlined the list of complaints. At
    least five such cases were reported by the end of voting on May
    31. Ballot-box stuffing, transportation of out-of-town voters to
    Yerevan, polling-station scuffles, vote buying, and the expulsion of
    observers from polling stations were among other reported abuses.

    Gohar Vezirian, a reporter for the pro-opposition Chorrord Ishkhanutiun
    newspaper, told EurasiaNet that she was beaten and verbally abused
    by supporters of Mayor Beglarian after complaining to one polling
    station commission chairman about the "intrusion" of a Republican
    Party MP and "three dozen supporters." She declined, however, to file
    a police report.

    Representatives of Transparency International and the Helsinki Human
    Rights Assembly of Armenia both declared the conduct of the vote
    "terrible."

    Helsinki Assembly observer Artur Sakunts, who monitored the voting
    in polling station No. 9 in Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia District,
    asserted that vote falsification surpassed levels for any election
    he had observed in the past decade. "Cases of [ballot box] stuffing
    have been witnessed everywhere. They bring people by cars . . . they
    tried to find reasons to have us leave the station several times to
    try to make falsifications," Sakunts claimed.

    Central Election Commission representatives were not immediately
    available to respond to the specific observer allegations. One hour
    after polling stations closed on May 31, however, CEC Chairman Garegin
    Azarian claimed that most of the violation reports "did not correspond
    with reality."

    "We have gotten alarmed calls as well, but not all of them are
    confirmed," Azarian stated on Armenian Public Television.

    Some 5,635 local observers and the Council of Europe's Congress of
    Regional and Local Authorities monitored the vote. At a June 1 news
    conference, the 15 Council of Europe observers noted the occurrence
    of "some shortcomings." But the observers added that the vote was
    "largely conducted in compliance with European standards."

    Voter reactions ran the gamut. Arevhat Mkrtchian, an 80-something
    voter in Malatia-Sebastia district, affirmed that Armenians need
    "to believe in the country's rulers." Hairdresser Inessa Gharibian,
    however, weary of opposition-government jousting, said that she had
    decided not to vote. "The outcome of elections in this country is
    pre-determined," she said.

    Republican Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov took a pragmatic
    view, echoing official statements that the vote is "a step forward
    on the road to democracy."

    "We need to realize there can't be ideal elections in a country that
    gained independence only 18 years ago," Sharmazanov said.
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