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WIDESPREAD IRREGULARITIES MAR ARMENIAN ELECTION
ASBAREZ
Monday, May 7th, 2012
One of the polling stations (photo by Nanore Barsoumian)
YEREVAN-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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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 Serzh
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,
7.1 percent; Heritage party, 5.79 percent; the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, 5.73 percent; the Country of Law party, a member of the
current governing coalition barely cleared the 5 percent threshold,
the Armenian Communist Party, 1.06 percent; and the Armenian Democratic
Party, 0.36 percent.
The Central Electoral Commission has said official results will
be publicized in a few days, while all parties reserved their
announcements for Tuesday.
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 individual candidate elections.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ASBAREZ
Monday, May 7th, 2012
One of the polling stations (photo by Nanore Barsoumian)
YEREVAN-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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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 Serzh
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,
7.1 percent; Heritage party, 5.79 percent; the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, 5.73 percent; the Country of Law party, a member of the
current governing coalition barely cleared the 5 percent threshold,
the Armenian Communist Party, 1.06 percent; and the Armenian Democratic
Party, 0.36 percent.
The Central Electoral Commission has said official results will
be publicized in a few days, while all parties reserved their
announcements for Tuesday.
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 individual candidate elections.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress