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ARMENIA VOTES AMID REPORTS OF WIDESPREAD IRREGULARITIES
Nanore Barsoumian
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/05/07/armenia-votes-amid-reports-of-widespread-irregularities/
May 7, 2012
YEREVAN (A.W.)-Disappearing stamps, unidentified men, escorts,
and multi-votes: Facts and rumors painted a chaotic image of the
elections as they happened in eight polling stations visited by the
Armenian Weekly.
One of the polling stations visited by the Armenian Weekly (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Stamps disappearing from voters' passports became
one of the first news items on voting irregularities on the morning
of May 6, when Armenians went to the polls for the Parliamentary
elections. The stamps were intended to leave no trace behind within
24 hours.
However, some disappeared in less than an hour.
One man pointed at the far right corner of a clean page in his
passport, "It was right there," he told the Armenian Weekly. He voted
at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls opened. By
8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. All but a tiny speck
remained (see photo).
The eight polling stations the Weekly visited included one in
the Kentron (central Yerevan); and seven in Achapniag district, a
poorer area in Yerevan (there are 41 districts in the country, and
around 2,000 polling places). Most followed the rule of allowing no
more than 15 voters into the voting area. Entrances at all but one
station were quite crowded, where patience seemed to run low. Party
representatives, and sometimes observers and journalists stood or sat
in the voting area, provided they had the proper identification card,
while between one and four dozen people loitered around the buildings.
Little black cameras were propped up high above voters, or stationed
at the corners of desks. Six parties had agreed to install the cameras
in as many polling stations as they could. Although they might have
caught visible voter fraud practices, spotting some of the more
serious allegations may prove to be an almost impossible task.
He voted at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls
opened. By 8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Some of the allegations at the polling stations
the Weekly visited included suspicion that some voters used red
pens on the ballot, as part of a vote buying scheme-in hopes that
ballots marked with red would be counted to make certain that all the
"purchased" votes are there. There were also rumors that vanloads of
voters were being driven around to various polling stations to cast
multiple votes using different identification cards. The Armenian
Weekly was unable to verify these claims.
One observer the Weekly spoke with confirmed rumors that men escorted
small groups of people. "Some men were coming back after voting,
which is illegal. They would return, and escort others in. We told the
chairman of the local election commission, and they got thrown out,"
Ani Karapetyan from Kentron TV channel told the Armenian Weekly.
Karapetyan noticed another problem as well. Two or three men
without identification badges were sticking around in the voting
station. When she asked them where their badges were, they said they
were representatives of the Republican Party, and claimed their ID
cards were in their pockets. Karapetyan told them that they were
required to have them in a visible place. They left soon after,
without showing her their badges.
The Weekly experienced a similar incident, when a man asking not to be
photographed failed to produce the required badge. The man who claimed
he was a representative of the Republican Party, and who was frequently
interacting with voters, left almost immediately after the Weekly
inquired about his identity and the absence of his identification card.
A man votes in Yerevan (photo by Nanore Barsoumian) What seemed
strange was the presence of observers, and even journalists, who seemed
unaware of what organization they represented, or had to check their
badges to identify themselves. One such man remained in the lobby
of the school that served as a polling station for the entire hour
the Weekly was present there. He asked the addresses of voters and
directed them either towards the right, or left-to either of the two
polling stations.
In another particularly chaotic polling station an argument broke out
between a Republican Party and Prosperous party representatives. The
latter claimed the Republican was standing too close to the cardboard
cubicle where voters cast their ballots.
The Weekly was also alerted about a picture of President Serge
Sarkisian-who heads the Republican Party list- at the aforementioned
voting station. Keeping his picture in the voting area would be
tantamount to campaigning, which is prohibited within polling stations.
In the neighboring polling station-separated by a line of low benches
unable to stop the flow of people between the two stations-the chairman
suffered from an epileptic seizure. The station was closed to voters
for around 40 minutes.
iDitord.org, a website that allows observers to submit their reports,
shows that there have been 1,036 instances of voting irregularities.
These included 283 reports of bribery and pressuring; 178 cases of
campaigning; and 134 instances of disruptions of the voting process.
Some of the reports claim that when people approached to register their
vote, it was revealed that their names had been crossed off already-in
other words, others had voted in their name. One observer said
"Pjni" mineral waters bearing the name of the Republican Party were
distributed in one district. Another observer said that a "carousel"
was organized at polling station 11/02, where a pre-marked ballot is
given to a voter who has to return with an unmarked one in order to
get paid.
So far, the preliminary results show that the Republicans received
the most votes, 44.35 percent; they were followed by the Prosperous
Armenia Party, with 30.26 percent; the Armenian National Congress,
6.99 percent; Heritage party, 5.70 percent; the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, 5.67 percent; the Armenian Communist Party, 1.06 percent;
and the Armenian Democratic Party, 0.36 percent (see the results here).
Nanore Barsoumian
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/05/07/armenia-votes-amid-reports-of-widespread-irregularities/
May 7, 2012
YEREVAN (A.W.)-Disappearing stamps, unidentified men, escorts,
and multi-votes: Facts and rumors painted a chaotic image of the
elections as they happened in eight polling stations visited by the
Armenian Weekly.
One of the polling stations visited by the Armenian Weekly (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Stamps disappearing from voters' passports became
one of the first news items on voting irregularities on the morning
of May 6, when Armenians went to the polls for the Parliamentary
elections. The stamps were intended to leave no trace behind within
24 hours.
However, some disappeared in less than an hour.
One man pointed at the far right corner of a clean page in his
passport, "It was right there," he told the Armenian Weekly. He voted
at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls opened. By
8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. All but a tiny speck
remained (see photo).
The eight polling stations the Weekly visited included one in
the Kentron (central Yerevan); and seven in Achapniag district, a
poorer area in Yerevan (there are 41 districts in the country, and
around 2,000 polling places). Most followed the rule of allowing no
more than 15 voters into the voting area. Entrances at all but one
station were quite crowded, where patience seemed to run low. Party
representatives, and sometimes observers and journalists stood or sat
in the voting area, provided they had the proper identification card,
while between one and four dozen people loitered around the buildings.
Little black cameras were propped up high above voters, or stationed
at the corners of desks. Six parties had agreed to install the cameras
in as many polling stations as they could. Although they might have
caught visible voter fraud practices, spotting some of the more
serious allegations may prove to be an almost impossible task.
He voted at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls
opened. By 8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Some of the allegations at the polling stations
the Weekly visited included suspicion that some voters used red
pens on the ballot, as part of a vote buying scheme-in hopes that
ballots marked with red would be counted to make certain that all the
"purchased" votes are there. There were also rumors that vanloads of
voters were being driven around to various polling stations to cast
multiple votes using different identification cards. The Armenian
Weekly was unable to verify these claims.
One observer the Weekly spoke with confirmed rumors that men escorted
small groups of people. "Some men were coming back after voting,
which is illegal. They would return, and escort others in. We told the
chairman of the local election commission, and they got thrown out,"
Ani Karapetyan from Kentron TV channel told the Armenian Weekly.
Karapetyan noticed another problem as well. Two or three men
without identification badges were sticking around in the voting
station. When she asked them where their badges were, they said they
were representatives of the Republican Party, and claimed their ID
cards were in their pockets. Karapetyan told them that they were
required to have them in a visible place. They left soon after,
without showing her their badges.
The Weekly experienced a similar incident, when a man asking not to be
photographed failed to produce the required badge. The man who claimed
he was a representative of the Republican Party, and who was frequently
interacting with voters, left almost immediately after the Weekly
inquired about his identity and the absence of his identification card.
A man votes in Yerevan (photo by Nanore Barsoumian) What seemed
strange was the presence of observers, and even journalists, who seemed
unaware of what organization they represented, or had to check their
badges to identify themselves. One such man remained in the lobby
of the school that served as a polling station for the entire hour
the Weekly was present there. He asked the addresses of voters and
directed them either towards the right, or left-to either of the two
polling stations.
In another particularly chaotic polling station an argument broke out
between a Republican Party and Prosperous party representatives. The
latter claimed the Republican was standing too close to the cardboard
cubicle where voters cast their ballots.
The Weekly was also alerted about a picture of President Serge
Sarkisian-who heads the Republican Party list- at the aforementioned
voting station. Keeping his picture in the voting area would be
tantamount to campaigning, which is prohibited within polling stations.
In the neighboring polling station-separated by a line of low benches
unable to stop the flow of people between the two stations-the chairman
suffered from an epileptic seizure. The station was closed to voters
for around 40 minutes.
iDitord.org, a website that allows observers to submit their reports,
shows that there have been 1,036 instances of voting irregularities.
These included 283 reports of bribery and pressuring; 178 cases of
campaigning; and 134 instances of disruptions of the voting process.
Some of the reports claim that when people approached to register their
vote, it was revealed that their names had been crossed off already-in
other words, others had voted in their name. One observer said
"Pjni" mineral waters bearing the name of the Republican Party were
distributed in one district. Another observer said that a "carousel"
was organized at polling station 11/02, where a pre-marked ballot is
given to a voter who has to return with an unmarked one in order to
get paid.
So far, the preliminary results show that the Republicans received
the most votes, 44.35 percent; they were followed by the Prosperous
Armenia Party, with 30.26 percent; the Armenian National Congress,
6.99 percent; Heritage party, 5.70 percent; the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, 5.67 percent; the Armenian Communist Party, 1.06 percent;
and the Armenian Democratic Party, 0.36 percent (see the results here).