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OPPOSITION ALLEGES IRREGULARITIES IN ARMENIAN POLLS
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
May 11 2012
UK
Election better run than previous ones, but Armenian National Congress
wants results cancelled.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
CRS Issue 641, 11 May 12
Armenian opposition parties, which collectively polled about a quarter
of the vote in the May 6 parliamentary election, have alleged electoral
fraud. However, analysts say their complaints may be undermined by
their decision to take up their seats, which can be seen as a de
facto to recognition of the result.
The opposition Armenian National Congress, ANC, headed by former
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, won just seven per cent of the vote. It
announced on May 8 that it would be seeking an annulment of the
results at the Constitutional Court.
Despite this, Nikol Pashinyan, a senior figure in the party, said
those elected would still enter parliament.
Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan,
said the implication was that "the ANC agrees to work with other
parties, including the [winning] Republican Party".
The Republican Party, headed by President Serzh Sargsyan, won 44 per
cent of the vote, while Prosperous Armenia, part of the governing
coalition until now, came second with 30 per cent. The ANC came third,
followed by the Dashnaktsutyun, Rule of Law and Heritage parties.
The ANC's complaints include the fact that President Sargsyan played
a leading role in campaigning for his Party. The ANC argues that this
was unconstitutional.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, said that campaigning was "competitive,
vibrant and largely peaceful".
"The elections were held under an improved legal framework and
administered in an overall professional and transparent manner prior
to election day," the OSCE monitoring team said. "Election day was
generally calm and peaceful, but marked by organisational problems and
undue interference in the process, mostly by party representatives."
The statement did, however, point out that the ruling party used
its control of the state apparatus to deliver votes to itself, for
instance by recruiting schoolteachers and pupils for campaign events.
They also pointed out instances of what appeared to be electoral
bribery with gifts and food.
"Multigroup, a company belonging to [Prosperous Armenia] leader Gagik
Tsarukyan, distributed some 500 tractors during the campaign period.
The project was mainstreamed into [the party's] campaign," the
statement said, noting that "electoral contestants and associated
charitable organisations are prohibited from providing or promising
goods and services to voters during the campaign period". (For more
on this issue, see Armenian Parties Make Lavish Jobs and Pay Pledges.)
The Armenian prosecutor's office has opened three criminal cases
relating to alleged instances of electoral bribery, one of them in
reference to the Shengavit constituency in Yerevan. Journalist Gohar
Veziryan was running for election there, and she accused her opponent
from Prosperous Armenia of paying off voters.
Another case related to a constituency in Arabkir district, where Armen
Matevosyan, also of Prosperous Armenia, was detained in possession
of 380,000 drams and a notebook containing voters' names.
"These are just evil machinations which we will deal with. We will
show that nothing like that happened," Naira Zohrabyan, head of
Prosperous Armenia's campaign team, said.
Analysts said electoral bribes undoubtedly had an effect on the
final outcome.
"Armenia does not have a mechanism for holding elections. The
authorities will always falsify the results until society tells them
not to," Manvel Sargsyan, director of the Armenian Centre for National
and International Studies, said.
Another complaint from the ANC was that a stamp placed in voters'
passports, which was supposed to be indelible for 12 hours to prevent
repeat voting, could in fact be erased after only an hour or two. Both
Heritage and the ANC appealed to the election commission on these
grounds.
The commission said that from now on, it will use indelible ink that
remains in voters' passports forever.
The website www.iditord.am, created to register violations of electoral
procedure, was targeted by hacker attacks on election day, meaning
it was unavailable for several hours. However, it has still gathered
1,000 allegations of breaches of the election law.
Many journalists reported that they were not able to operate freely
at polling stations. Nelli Babayan of the Aravot newspaper said three
men took her phone from her at a polling station in the Davitashen
district after she filmed an argument between representatives of the
Republican and Heritage parties.
"They told me not to film and rudely took my phone away from me. Only
after I argued with them did they return it," she said.
Elina Chilingaryan, a reporter for Radio Liberty, told a similar
story. She said a group of young people broke her video camera after
she filmed at a polling station in Yerevan's Erebuni district.
Despite the criticism, which was certainly milder than in past
elections, the winning Republican Party said the election showed that
Armenia was a democracy.
"We have proved that there's no alternative to democratic values in
Armenia," party spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said.
Gayane Lazarian is a reporter for Armenianow.com.
From: Baghdasarian
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
May 11 2012
UK
Election better run than previous ones, but Armenian National Congress
wants results cancelled.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
CRS Issue 641, 11 May 12
Armenian opposition parties, which collectively polled about a quarter
of the vote in the May 6 parliamentary election, have alleged electoral
fraud. However, analysts say their complaints may be undermined by
their decision to take up their seats, which can be seen as a de
facto to recognition of the result.
The opposition Armenian National Congress, ANC, headed by former
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, won just seven per cent of the vote. It
announced on May 8 that it would be seeking an annulment of the
results at the Constitutional Court.
Despite this, Nikol Pashinyan, a senior figure in the party, said
those elected would still enter parliament.
Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan,
said the implication was that "the ANC agrees to work with other
parties, including the [winning] Republican Party".
The Republican Party, headed by President Serzh Sargsyan, won 44 per
cent of the vote, while Prosperous Armenia, part of the governing
coalition until now, came second with 30 per cent. The ANC came third,
followed by the Dashnaktsutyun, Rule of Law and Heritage parties.
The ANC's complaints include the fact that President Sargsyan played
a leading role in campaigning for his Party. The ANC argues that this
was unconstitutional.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, said that campaigning was "competitive,
vibrant and largely peaceful".
"The elections were held under an improved legal framework and
administered in an overall professional and transparent manner prior
to election day," the OSCE monitoring team said. "Election day was
generally calm and peaceful, but marked by organisational problems and
undue interference in the process, mostly by party representatives."
The statement did, however, point out that the ruling party used
its control of the state apparatus to deliver votes to itself, for
instance by recruiting schoolteachers and pupils for campaign events.
They also pointed out instances of what appeared to be electoral
bribery with gifts and food.
"Multigroup, a company belonging to [Prosperous Armenia] leader Gagik
Tsarukyan, distributed some 500 tractors during the campaign period.
The project was mainstreamed into [the party's] campaign," the
statement said, noting that "electoral contestants and associated
charitable organisations are prohibited from providing or promising
goods and services to voters during the campaign period". (For more
on this issue, see Armenian Parties Make Lavish Jobs and Pay Pledges.)
The Armenian prosecutor's office has opened three criminal cases
relating to alleged instances of electoral bribery, one of them in
reference to the Shengavit constituency in Yerevan. Journalist Gohar
Veziryan was running for election there, and she accused her opponent
from Prosperous Armenia of paying off voters.
Another case related to a constituency in Arabkir district, where Armen
Matevosyan, also of Prosperous Armenia, was detained in possession
of 380,000 drams and a notebook containing voters' names.
"These are just evil machinations which we will deal with. We will
show that nothing like that happened," Naira Zohrabyan, head of
Prosperous Armenia's campaign team, said.
Analysts said electoral bribes undoubtedly had an effect on the
final outcome.
"Armenia does not have a mechanism for holding elections. The
authorities will always falsify the results until society tells them
not to," Manvel Sargsyan, director of the Armenian Centre for National
and International Studies, said.
Another complaint from the ANC was that a stamp placed in voters'
passports, which was supposed to be indelible for 12 hours to prevent
repeat voting, could in fact be erased after only an hour or two. Both
Heritage and the ANC appealed to the election commission on these
grounds.
The commission said that from now on, it will use indelible ink that
remains in voters' passports forever.
The website www.iditord.am, created to register violations of electoral
procedure, was targeted by hacker attacks on election day, meaning
it was unavailable for several hours. However, it has still gathered
1,000 allegations of breaches of the election law.
Many journalists reported that they were not able to operate freely
at polling stations. Nelli Babayan of the Aravot newspaper said three
men took her phone from her at a polling station in the Davitashen
district after she filmed an argument between representatives of the
Republican and Heritage parties.
"They told me not to film and rudely took my phone away from me. Only
after I argued with them did they return it," she said.
Elina Chilingaryan, a reporter for Radio Liberty, told a similar
story. She said a group of young people broke her video camera after
she filmed at a polling station in Yerevan's Erebuni district.
Despite the criticism, which was certainly milder than in past
elections, the winning Republican Party said the election showed that
Armenia was a democracy.
"We have proved that there's no alternative to democratic values in
Armenia," party spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said.
Gayane Lazarian is a reporter for Armenianow.com.
From: Baghdasarian