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ARMENIA: ON ELECTION DAY, FAMILIAR COMPLAINTS AND A FAMILIAR FINISH
Marianna Grigoryan
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65370
May 7 2012
NY
Elections in Armenia on May 6 should not significantly alter the
current balance of power in parliament, according to preliminary
results. The most significant, unanswered question is whether
incumbent authorities conducted a clean enough vote to satisfy the
European Union.
EU officials had said prior to Election Day that the conduct of vote
would play a major role in defining diplomatic relations between
Brussels and Yerevan.
After the polls closed on May 6, leading representatives of the
Republican Party of Armenia, the leader of the three-party governing
coalition, were quick to tout the vote as free-and-fair. Prime Minister
Tigran Sarkisian, for example, called the poll "the most transparent"
in the 20-year "history of our newly independent state."
Republican Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov also pronounced the
voting to be largely irregularity-free.
"If someone thinks differently, I would ask for facts; not rhetoric
and speeches, but specific facts," lectured Sharmazanov. "There have
been no facts."
But international observers managed to come up with a few. Observers
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OSCE/ODIHR),
the Council of Europe, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and European
Parliament assessed the vote count negatively in roughly 20 percent
of the polling stations observed.
Speaking at a May 7 press conference in Yerevan, Francois-Xavier de
Donnea, the special coordinator for the OSCE's 250-member short-term
observer team, praised Armenia "for its electoral reforms and its
open and peaceful campaign environment," yet noted that the election
law was not always enforced by election commissions, or observed by
"stakeholders."
"The international commitments to which Armenia has freely subscribed
were not always respected," de Donnea said.
Inaccurate voter lists, handouts (money, cell phones, and even
basturma, an Armenian dried meat, according to some reports),
intimidation tactics, voter bussing and carousel voting were among
the familiar repertoire of election-day irregularities alleged by
opposition monitors and local election observers. Local observers
planned to hold a news conference on May 8.
The 170-member Commonwealth of Independent States observation mission
offered a rosier picture of the voting. CIS mission head Vladimir
Garkun, a veteran Belarusian diplomat, declared irregularities to
be mostly "technical," adding that "Armenia is on the right path
to democracy."
The 62.6-percent official voter turnout on May 6 was the largest
since Armenia's 2003 parliamentary election.
According to the preliminary results, the Republican Party gained just
over 44 percent of the vote, far outpacing its nearest competitor,
multimillionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian's Prosperous Armenia
Party, which is also part of the current governing coalition.
Prosperous Armenia gained 30.2 percent of the votes, according to
the preliminary results. The third coalition member, the scandal-hit
Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law) Party, barely cleared the 5-percent
threshold.
The Armenian National Congress, headed by former president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, led opposition parties with 7.1 percent of the vote.
The Heritage Party, the outgoing parliament's lone opposition group,
and the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun
barely qualified for representation, attracting 5.79 percent and 5.73
percent of the vote respectively.
In all, 90 of the 131 seats in parliament will be allotted according
to the percentage of the vote given to a political party. The remaining
41 seats were determined in first-past-the-post votes among individual
candidates. It would appear that candidates aligned with the Republican
Party won most of the individual-constituency seats up for grabs.
How authorities follow through on investigating election-related
complaints could become an issue. Most of the 494 complaints - all but
33 filed by a single person - submitted to Armenia's Central Election
Committee before election day were not investigated, recounted a
post-election report issued by the OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe,
European Parliament and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
"Almost all other complaints filed to the CEC were denied consideration
on various technical grounds, or rejected, often without due
consideration of the claim's substance or evidence," the report
found. "Some decisions lacked sound legal basis."
Widespread media reports about the disappearance of stamps placed by
election officials in passports to prevent repeat voting kicked off
Election Day. CEC Chairperson Tigran Mukuchian earlier had asserted
that the stamps would last for 12 hours; he attributed the stamps'
disappearing act to failure to stir the stamp ink before use, but a
test later run at the CEC showed that stirring made no difference,
Panorama.am reported.
Members of the opposition and some local election observers believe
the vanishing stamps facilitated carousel voting, a longtime feature
of Armenian elections. The Armenian National Congress has filed a
complaint with the CEC about the stamps, media reported.
Even if the elections were the fairest conducted in recent memory,
the results still left some voters feeling embittered. "I myself
witnessed how people are transported to the elections. And when you
look at the results, and the discredited Orinats Yerkir Party gets
as many votes as the opposition, I just want to leave this country,"
grumbled 32-year-old designer Edgar Matevosian.
Twenty-six-year-old philologist Armine Hayrapetian expressed relief
that, unlike the 2008 presidential vote, which led to deadly rioting;
"[e]verything went normally and everything was calm."
A fireball from exploding gas balloons at a May 4 Republican Party
campaign rally that left at least 154 people hospitalized was the
lone major incident that marred that peaceful assessment.
"[T]his time, it was significantly easier, and if some complain about
voter bribes, let them just not take the bribes," Hayrapetian said.
"People decide themselves what to do and what not to do."
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter in Yerevan
and the editor of MediaLab.am.
Marianna Grigoryan
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65370
May 7 2012
NY
Elections in Armenia on May 6 should not significantly alter the
current balance of power in parliament, according to preliminary
results. The most significant, unanswered question is whether
incumbent authorities conducted a clean enough vote to satisfy the
European Union.
EU officials had said prior to Election Day that the conduct of vote
would play a major role in defining diplomatic relations between
Brussels and Yerevan.
After the polls closed on May 6, leading representatives of the
Republican Party of Armenia, the leader of the three-party governing
coalition, were quick to tout the vote as free-and-fair. Prime Minister
Tigran Sarkisian, for example, called the poll "the most transparent"
in the 20-year "history of our newly independent state."
Republican Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov also pronounced the
voting to be largely irregularity-free.
"If someone thinks differently, I would ask for facts; not rhetoric
and speeches, but specific facts," lectured Sharmazanov. "There have
been no facts."
But international observers managed to come up with a few. Observers
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OSCE/ODIHR),
the Council of Europe, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and European
Parliament assessed the vote count negatively in roughly 20 percent
of the polling stations observed.
Speaking at a May 7 press conference in Yerevan, Francois-Xavier de
Donnea, the special coordinator for the OSCE's 250-member short-term
observer team, praised Armenia "for its electoral reforms and its
open and peaceful campaign environment," yet noted that the election
law was not always enforced by election commissions, or observed by
"stakeholders."
"The international commitments to which Armenia has freely subscribed
were not always respected," de Donnea said.
Inaccurate voter lists, handouts (money, cell phones, and even
basturma, an Armenian dried meat, according to some reports),
intimidation tactics, voter bussing and carousel voting were among
the familiar repertoire of election-day irregularities alleged by
opposition monitors and local election observers. Local observers
planned to hold a news conference on May 8.
The 170-member Commonwealth of Independent States observation mission
offered a rosier picture of the voting. CIS mission head Vladimir
Garkun, a veteran Belarusian diplomat, declared irregularities to
be mostly "technical," adding that "Armenia is on the right path
to democracy."
The 62.6-percent official voter turnout on May 6 was the largest
since Armenia's 2003 parliamentary election.
According to the preliminary results, the Republican Party gained just
over 44 percent of the vote, far outpacing its nearest competitor,
multimillionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian's Prosperous Armenia
Party, which is also part of the current governing coalition.
Prosperous Armenia gained 30.2 percent of the votes, according to
the preliminary results. The third coalition member, the scandal-hit
Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law) Party, barely cleared the 5-percent
threshold.
The Armenian National Congress, headed by former president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, led opposition parties with 7.1 percent of the vote.
The Heritage Party, the outgoing parliament's lone opposition group,
and the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun
barely qualified for representation, attracting 5.79 percent and 5.73
percent of the vote respectively.
In all, 90 of the 131 seats in parliament will be allotted according
to the percentage of the vote given to a political party. The remaining
41 seats were determined in first-past-the-post votes among individual
candidates. It would appear that candidates aligned with the Republican
Party won most of the individual-constituency seats up for grabs.
How authorities follow through on investigating election-related
complaints could become an issue. Most of the 494 complaints - all but
33 filed by a single person - submitted to Armenia's Central Election
Committee before election day were not investigated, recounted a
post-election report issued by the OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe,
European Parliament and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
"Almost all other complaints filed to the CEC were denied consideration
on various technical grounds, or rejected, often without due
consideration of the claim's substance or evidence," the report
found. "Some decisions lacked sound legal basis."
Widespread media reports about the disappearance of stamps placed by
election officials in passports to prevent repeat voting kicked off
Election Day. CEC Chairperson Tigran Mukuchian earlier had asserted
that the stamps would last for 12 hours; he attributed the stamps'
disappearing act to failure to stir the stamp ink before use, but a
test later run at the CEC showed that stirring made no difference,
Panorama.am reported.
Members of the opposition and some local election observers believe
the vanishing stamps facilitated carousel voting, a longtime feature
of Armenian elections. The Armenian National Congress has filed a
complaint with the CEC about the stamps, media reported.
Even if the elections were the fairest conducted in recent memory,
the results still left some voters feeling embittered. "I myself
witnessed how people are transported to the elections. And when you
look at the results, and the discredited Orinats Yerkir Party gets
as many votes as the opposition, I just want to leave this country,"
grumbled 32-year-old designer Edgar Matevosian.
Twenty-six-year-old philologist Armine Hayrapetian expressed relief
that, unlike the 2008 presidential vote, which led to deadly rioting;
"[e]verything went normally and everything was calm."
A fireball from exploding gas balloons at a May 4 Republican Party
campaign rally that left at least 154 people hospitalized was the
lone major incident that marred that peaceful assessment.
"[T]his time, it was significantly easier, and if some complain about
voter bribes, let them just not take the bribes," Hayrapetian said.
"People decide themselves what to do and what not to do."
Editor's note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter in Yerevan
and the editor of MediaLab.am.