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A Story of Defiance: Activists Reject International Observers' Asses

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  • A Story of Defiance: Activists Reject International Observers' Asses

    A Story of Defiance: Activists Reject International Observers'
    Assessment of Election

    http://hetq.am/eng/news/23768/the-police-warns-raffi-hovhannisyan.html
    by Nanore Barsoumian

    February 23, 2013

    YEREVAN (A.W.) - On Feb. 19, some ten minutes into a press conference
    during which the international election observation mission presented
    their assessment of the Feb. 18 Armenian presidential election, a
    young woman marched to the front of the room, slipped away from the
    grip of the security personnel, faced the media, and began reading
    from her clipboard, her small voice unfazed, floating above the voices
    in the crowd.



    Lena Nazaryan reads her statement during the press conference.
    `Dear political tourists, we have had enough of your efforts to
    legitimize the fraudulent elections,' she read. `The recent
    presidential election in Armenia, when compared to previous
    presidential elections, has registered one step forward and three
    steps backwards, two steps to the right and half a step to the left.
    In other words, they haven't corresponded to the Constitution of
    Armenia, to the requirements of the Election Code, and to
    international standards.'

    By disrupting the press conference that would in effect rubber-stamp
    the results of the election, Lena Nazaryan wanted to convey to her
    compatriots and the world that only the citizens of Armenia could
    grant legitimacy to those elected.

    Nazaryan later told the Armenian Weekly that she knew she would not
    remain silent if the assessment presented by the international
    observers ultimately acquiesced to the authorities and - what she
    considered - their brazen efforts to steal the election. `I had decided
    to interrupt the conference if I deemed it to contradict reality. And
    that's what I did,' she said.

    `I am certain that the elections were rigged,' she continued. `I was
    not asking the [international observers] to revise their assessment. I
    simply wanted to tell the citizens of Armenia that they are the ones
    who should assess the elections, and they are the ones who have to
    guard their votes. I've never been a Heritage Party supporter, but I
    am ready to protect the rights of all those citizens who cast their
    votes for Raffi Hovannisian.'

    A day earlier, Nazaryan spent the day, well into the night, as an
    observer at precincts 17/2 and 17/3 in Ardashad, where she faced
    harassment throughout the day. She was called an `idiot' and told to
    `get lost' by a man, presumably a voter, appearing to be friends with
    the Republican Party proxy stationed there. Her efforts to document
    events on her video camera - something she says she is allowed to do as
    an observer - were met with resistance. Even the Republican Party proxy
    would threaten her. The president of the precinct remained
    disinterested, refraining from admonishing trouble-makers.

    `Their aim was to drive me away from that precinct. Throughout the
    day, insults were hurled at me. The president of that precinct was on
    more than friendly terms with the Republican representatives; they
    whispered in corners throughout the day, and he did not miss a chance
    to verbally attack me. It was clear that I was interfering with their
    plans,' she said.

    In the adjacent Precinct 17/2, where Nazaryan's colleague was
    stationed as an observer, the situation seems to have been worse.
    `There was ballot stuffing, the observer's video camera was stolen, he
    was constantly cursed and subjected to threats, and there was even an
    invitation to participate in a `carousel,'' said Nazaryan, who was one
    of the 48 `Europe in Law Association' observers and around 6,250
    registered local observers that day. A carousel is a form of election
    fraud whereby a pre-marked ballot is given to a voter who is asked to
    return with an unmarked one in order to get paid.

    By the end of Election Day, over 350 instances of irregularities,
    ranging from threats to bribery and vote rigging, were reported on the
    online election monitoring site iDitord.org.

    Nazaryan told the Weekly that she felt `hopeless' and `disappointed'
    upon returning to Yerevan. Then, she received a phone-call from a
    friend, who informed her that the international observers were
    preparing to give a statement - most likely, a wishy-washy, vague
    assessment, she said. The friend told her that, along with a few
    others, they were preparing an alternative text. `Someone had to do
    it,' said Nazaryan. `So, I too went to Marriott and I waited until
    they were done presenting their argument. Their assessment did not
    correspond with reality. They said that Armenia had taken a step
    forward, when compared to the previous elections, and that it would
    soon become a democracy. They didn't say how many kilometers were left
    to reach democracy. Everything was clear to me by then. I interrupted
    their event and said the following: `Dear political tourists, you are
    legitimizing the fraudulent elections. You are trampling upon the very
    same democratic principles that you yourselves have adopted.''

    `This was my personal response to the treacherous, foul mouthed,
    thuggish and criminal local representatives of the Republican Party at
    precincts 17/2 and 17/3, and the presidents of the local precincts who
    sold their principles and did not remain accountable to local
    observers. They cursed and harassed the local observers, and assumed
    an angelic demeanor in the presence of the international ones,' she
    said.

    And that is why she believes the conclusion reached by her and her
    peers represent the realities on the ground, and not the manicured
    version witnessed by the international observers during their short
    visits to the precincts.

    Nazaryan is not alone. Many others have criticized the assessment
    presented by the international election observation mission comprising
    of representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation
    in Europe (OSCE), Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
    (PACE), and the European Parliament (EP). Although the international
    observer mission did note `some key concerns,' overall it deemed the
    election `well-administered,' and `characterized by a respect for
    fundamental freedoms.' Personal accounts from observers, journalists,
    and citizens that have appeared on news and social networking sites
    challenge that conclusion. One such account, the story of a
    Transparency International observer Narine Esmaeili who was pinned
    against the wall while ballot stuffing took place, went viral on
    social networking sites. The international observation mission did not
    allude to that incident in their statements, even though, according to
    Esmaeili, `this was probably the biggest cheating in all of Armenia,'
    involving 400 or so fraudulent votes.

    Policy Forum Armenia published the results of its preliminary analysis
    on the elections, where it stated, `Our results strongly indicate that
    the final outcome of [the] February 2013 election was subject to
    massive manipulations and interference and did not reflect the free
    will of the Armenian citizens. They also call into question the role
    of foreign election observers in the Armenian context, specifically
    their impartiality and ability to detect election fraud that is
    becoming ever more sophisticated.'

    Nazaryan says the next order of business is to declare the official
    results of the Feb. 18 elections unlawful and to demand a new round of
    elections, where all civil society resources will serve to guarantee a
    free and fair election. `It is time for Armenia to have a legitimate
    president,' she told the Weekly, and added, `We do not recognize or
    accept any heroes or saviors. We believe in and accept you alone,
    citizen of the Republic of Armenia, because you are the bearer of
    authority.'

    ***

    Below is a translation of the statement read by Nazaryan during the
    international observation mission press conference, as published on
    CivilNet.



    Dear political tourists, we have had enough of your efforts to
    legitimize the fraudulent elections.

    The recent presidential election in Armenia, when compared to previous
    presidential elections, has registered one step forward and three
    steps backwards, two steps to the right and a half step to the left.
    In a word, they haven't corresponded to the RA Constitution, to the
    demands of the Election Code as well as international standards.

    The elections have proceeded against the backdrop of proposed reforms
    to the Election Code by the parliamentary opposition that were
    rejected by the ruling majority. Even though international and
    domestic observers, rights defenders and the opposition raised
    concerns, especially regarding glaring inaccuracies in the voter
    rolls, after the parliamentary election, nevertheless, the ruling
    authorities did nothing to fix the problem before this recent
    presidential election.

    In essence, last year's parliamentary election and yesterday's
    presidential election took place on the same legal-normative basis.

    Of note is the fact that in the February 18 presidential election none
    of Armenia's primary political opposition forces either nominated
    their own candidate or supported any of the nominated candidates. I
    refer to the Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, the ARF
    and the Free Democrats. This is ample proof that the election was not
    truly competitive.

    The fact that none of the primary opposition groups refused to
    nominate their own candidate or support any other candidate running,
    points to the deep level of mistrust of citizens and political forces
    regarding the electoral process.

    Thus, the opposition forces in the parliament, from the outset, have
    labeled the presidential election as a farce and a show, since as
    previously noted, the ruling majority squashed the passage of election
    reforms proposed by the opposition prior to the election period.

    Even though on the surface there was the appearance that important
    democratic freedoms were being safeguarded during the campaign,
    including the right to run a free campaign, in reality, the campaign
    was noteworthy by its competitive inequality in favor of the candidate
    of the regime. In particular, administrative resources and powers were
    put into the service of the latter. This was accomplished via pressure
    brought to bear on state and public employees to attend campaign
    events of Serzh Sargsyan and to vote in his favor.

    The election campaign did not proceed peacefully. Violence was
    inflicted on candidate Paruyr Hayrikian. The man was shot. Another
    candidate, Andreas Ghoukasyan, staged a hunger strike to protest the
    electoral process which he labeled a mere show. The press covered
    cases of violence even on Election Day.

    The campaign also stood out by its lack of political and individual
    professionalism. Candidates employed the crudest of language and
    public relation stunts. For example, the various incidents that took
    place during the campaign conducted by the regime's candidate were
    widely mocked by large segments of society. As a consequence, citizens
    tended not to take the election process seriously.

    On Election Day, polling precincts were transformed into theatrical
    stages where citizens showed their attitude to the process. The press
    and social internet sites were full of ballots invalidated by voters
    who drew caricatures on them. They drew images of figures from the
    plant and animal world, images lifted from fairy tales and television
    cartoon characters. In one precinct, a voter literally ate his ballot
    as a sign of protest. It significant to note that according to
    official statistics, the number of invalidated ballots came in third
    place.

    Reports of duplicate voting, ballot stuffing, bribes, and substitute
    voting and other scams were raised throughout the election itself.

    Thus, yesterday's presidential election in Armenia can be described as
    yet another normal appalling election.

    Dear political tourists, we've had enough of you legitimizing the
    fraudulent election. You are trampling those democratic values that
    you yourselves have broken.

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