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HELSINKI COMMITTEE REP. ON PARLIAMENTARY POLLS
tert.am
11.05.12
The May 6 parliamentary polls saw a new form of electoral frauds
that came to replace the traditional methods of vote rigging, the
president of the Helsinki Committee has said.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Avetik Ishkhanyan pointed out to
the crowding of people outside polling stations.
"Although this election differed in terms of a lesser degree of
violence, new technologies were used to replace the traditional
forms of wrongdoings," he said, characterizing the new method as
human stuffing.
Ishkyanyan noted that the Committee had carried out an observation
mission in 24 polling stations in Yerevan's Arabkor district.
"We chose that constituency as we expected a sharp rivalry there,"
he said.
Businessman Artak Sargsyan won the election in the district, receiving
a majority of votes.
According to the Helsinki Committee the recent parliamentary election
in Armenia does not assist in tje country's genuine democratization
as it reflects the authorities' failure to reform the process
institutionally.
"The validity of the electoral process was strongly affected by
widespread poverty - unemployment, lack of protection for individual
citizens, and impunity for others have deprived scores of citizens of
the possibility to make a free, informed, and conscious choice. The
formation of this moral and psychological atmosphere was largely
due to the fact that the Armenian authorities have so far failed to
exert sufficient efforts to identify and punish those in charge of
organizing and carrying out the 1 March 2008 bloodshed, as well as
those responsible for the fraud in the 2008 and following elections.
On the eve of the 2012 May election, the National Assembly adopted
a contentious Law on the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency,
which allows the interference of the armed forces in the domestic
political process and was, as such, perceived by many as a threat,"
the Committee says in a statement.
tert.am
11.05.12
The May 6 parliamentary polls saw a new form of electoral frauds
that came to replace the traditional methods of vote rigging, the
president of the Helsinki Committee has said.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Avetik Ishkhanyan pointed out to
the crowding of people outside polling stations.
"Although this election differed in terms of a lesser degree of
violence, new technologies were used to replace the traditional
forms of wrongdoings," he said, characterizing the new method as
human stuffing.
Ishkyanyan noted that the Committee had carried out an observation
mission in 24 polling stations in Yerevan's Arabkor district.
"We chose that constituency as we expected a sharp rivalry there,"
he said.
Businessman Artak Sargsyan won the election in the district, receiving
a majority of votes.
According to the Helsinki Committee the recent parliamentary election
in Armenia does not assist in tje country's genuine democratization
as it reflects the authorities' failure to reform the process
institutionally.
"The validity of the electoral process was strongly affected by
widespread poverty - unemployment, lack of protection for individual
citizens, and impunity for others have deprived scores of citizens of
the possibility to make a free, informed, and conscious choice. The
formation of this moral and psychological atmosphere was largely
due to the fact that the Armenian authorities have so far failed to
exert sufficient efforts to identify and punish those in charge of
organizing and carrying out the 1 March 2008 bloodshed, as well as
those responsible for the fraud in the 2008 and following elections.
On the eve of the 2012 May election, the National Assembly adopted
a contentious Law on the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency,
which allows the interference of the armed forces in the domestic
political process and was, as such, perceived by many as a threat,"
the Committee says in a statement.