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  • Civil Society Voices Concern

    CIVIL SOCIETY VOICES CONCERN

    KarabakhOpen
    28-02-2008 19:39:09

    We, the undersigned civil society organizations, express our deep
    concern with the presidential elections on February 19, 2008, the
    pre-election period, the election campaign and the post-election
    processes in the country. The assessment of international observers,
    even though portrayed in a positive light by the government and the
    government controlled media, was critical. However, the apparent
    discrepancy between the actual findings of the assessment with
    the formative first two sentences of the report resulted in the
    government only referring to this paragraph in the international
    observers' assessment in order to legitimize the results of the
    election. Meanwhile, in the report, international observers pointed
    out to media censorship, intimidation of voters, vote buying, etc. and
    called vote count 'bad' or 'very bad' in 16 percent of polling stations
    visited. Qualifying such practices as a "step forward" and in line with
    the commitments to hold free and fair elections discredits the notion
    of democracy and further lowers the standards of democratic reforms.

    A number of undersigned organizations observed the elections during
    the voting day as well as the process prior and post February 19. The
    instances of violations are numerous and are documented in our reports.

    We are particularly concerned with the Freedom of Media/Access to
    Media, Violence, Corruption and Use of Administrative Resources,
    Arrests of Public Figures.

    One of the main points that the OSCE/ODHIR observation mission made
    in its interim report concerned the need to establish public trust
    in the electoral process. Deep rooted mistrust and often-referred-to
    public apathy is nothing else but self-preservation reaction of
    the Armenian people vs. the atmosphere of impunity for those who
    perpetrated electoral fraud in all past elections. The processes
    taking place after the elections are alarming and will definitely
    deepen the public distrust.

    We believe that as long as electoral fraud goes uninvestigated and
    unpunished, there will be no trust in the process and in the legal
    and judicial system.

    We believe that only through open and widely inclusive public
    discussion over the above stated problems and violations it is possible
    to foster the atmosphere of trust and public confidence.

    In view of the above, we state that this election was not held
    in correspondence with our understanding of democratic values and
    practices.

    We believe that the way the authorities handle the fraud will be
    indicative of the honest determination to abide by the rules of
    democratic free and fair elections.

    We call upon the Armenian government to stop politically motivated
    detentions. These are not calls for impunity, but a call for the
    government to set the example for the Armenian people and to act
    within the law.

    We call upon the international community to see through the commitment
    of the Armenian government to comply with the procedure and to require
    documentation of proper investigation and due punishment of those
    who violated the law.

    We call upon the international community to make objective conclusions
    based on their own findings and not to discredit the notion of
    democracy, democratic standards and principles, as well as the
    international organizations carrying out an observation mission.

    Signatories

    "Asparez" Journalists' Club

    Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression

    Helsinki Committee of Armenia

    Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor Branch

    "Internews-Armenia" Media Support NGO

    Media Diversity Institute

    Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation-Armenia

    Transparency International Anti-corruption Center

    Yerevan Press Club

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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