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European observers shocked Armenian official
http://news.am/eng/news/136612.html
January 19, 2013 | 22:50
The Chairperson of Armenian Delegation to PACE, Armenian ruling
Republican Party MP Davit Harutyunyan is shocked by the statements of
European observers, reports Armenian News-NEWS.am.
`I was shocked by the form and substance of the press release of the
PACE preelectoral delegation to Armenia and feel obliged to address
all three negative assessments it contains,' stressed Harutyunyan in
his letter to the chairperson of the PACE ad hoc Committee for
observation of Presidential elections in Armenia Karin Woldseth and
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Jean-Claude Mignon.
The first `crucial matter of concern for the delegation is the
continuing substantial inaccuracies in the voter list.' According to
Armenian official, such negative assessment was pre cooked even before
the delegation's meeting with the main body responsible for handling
the electoral register, the Police, as the written press release in
English and Armenian was distributed immediately after that meeting.
`In fact this negative assessment was copy-pasted from the notorious
report of the delegation led by Baroness Nicholson on Parliamentary
elections in Armenia in May 2012. Since we considered the allegations
of that report as fake and ignoring any reasonable explanations
rendered by the Armenian authorities, after the Parliamentary
elections of 2012 we invited PACE to undertake a post-electoral
mission in order to verify the accuracy of the voters' lists 1 .
Unfortunately the organization did not accept our invitation, but
rather decided to continue the same path - making unsubstantiated and
false accusations on the quality of the voters' list,' stresses
Harutyunyan.
In his letter he addresses the main concerns of the CoE observers, in
particular:
a. The large number of passports issued in 2011-2012 is simply due to
the fact that Armenia introduced national passports two decades ago
back in 1992 with a 10-year validity period.
b. The increase of the numbers of voters by 157 thousands between two
previous national elections as opposed to the decrease of demographic
indicators is conditioned by three major factors: the large number of
those born between 1990 and 1994 turning into electoral age which is
overweighting the death rate (142 thousands for the period 2008-2012)
for about 270 thousand2; abrupt increase of number of dual citizens
(43,800); and new stricter requirements to passport holders to
indicate permanent residency address, which was not the case in the
past.
`Of course for any country it is theoretically impossible to eliminate
absolutely all inaccuracies in the voters' lists. However, Armenian
authorities eliminated them to the highest extent possible,' notes
Harutyunyan.
Moreover, the legislation itself contained sufficient safeguards. Any
person may check at any time (irrespective of elections) whether he or
she or any other person is in a voters' register or not. The voters'
lists are posted for public scrutiny at polling stations 40 days
before elections and they are also made available for download on the
Internet in a user-friendly format. Any person, party, NGO or other
organization have the opportunity during 35 days to formally request
the initiation of an administrative procedure to eliminate
inaccuracies. The final lists are published two days before each
election and they shall also be available for download on the
Internet, reads the letter by the Armenian MP.
`Any objective observer definitely would conclude that Armenia
achieved an outstanding progress following recommendations from the
Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR to compile an accurate voter
register,' mentions Harutyunyan. `I can insist without any doubt that
voter register of Armenia is one of the most accurate voter registers
among Council of Europe member states.'
Concerning the second negative assessment, a decision of number of
major political parties not to present presidential candidates because
of their lack of trust in the conduct of the election, and the lack of
interest and confidence in the electoral process by the general
public, Harutyunyan writes that this assessment was paraphrased from
the previous ungrounded report of Baroness Nicholson.
`It is worth to mention that some international observers attending
recent parliamentary elections noted that there is no generalized lack
of trust towards election and this is confirmed by the unprecedented
level of participation 62.8% of the total number of eligible voters.
Comparative study of voter participation across member states of the
Council of Europe could help draw certain conclusions,' reads the
Armenian official's letter.
According to him, three presidential candidates - MP Hrant Bagratyan
(former prime minister, leader of the Freedom party), Paruyr Hayrikyan
(former Soviet dissident), and Raffi Hovhannisyan (former minister of
foreign affairs, leader of the Heritage party) - are prominent public
and political figures.
`So these elections are as competitive as the previous elections,'
Harutyunyan stresses. `Unfortunately the delegation has either failed
to check or has preferred not to refer to the official explanations of
those `expected presidential candidates' about the reasons why they
decided not to participate. For example, the first President of
Armenia, currently the leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC)
officially announced in December 2012 that he was not going to make
another bid to return to power in February's presidential election
citing his age as the reason for his decision.'
Concerning the third negative assessment, confusion about the right to
vote for Armenians living abroad, Harutyunyan stresses that this
suggestion is `well beyond the framework of the observer mission.'
According to the MP, as a matter of internal policy, Armenia has
chosen to allow exercise of national electoral rights only
domestically.
`In no way does this constitute a violation of the right to vote and
it is within the margin of appreciation of any state to decide on the
matter. For some reason, about which we can only guess, these facts
have been conveniently overlooked by the delegation,' stresses Davit
Harutyunyan.
According to him, the press release by European observers contains
`false accusations and exaggerated concerns with fairness and proper
nature of the elections, thus affecting public trust, confidence and
interest in elections thus undermining the democratic process in
Armenia.'
`I strongly believe that observer missions should be conducted with
the strict application of two most important principles: fairness and
factual base. Unfortunately this press release failed on both
accounts. The issue at stake is the credibility of the PACE
observation mission,' concludes Harutyunyan.
http://news.am/eng/news/136612.html
January 19, 2013 | 22:50
The Chairperson of Armenian Delegation to PACE, Armenian ruling
Republican Party MP Davit Harutyunyan is shocked by the statements of
European observers, reports Armenian News-NEWS.am.
`I was shocked by the form and substance of the press release of the
PACE preelectoral delegation to Armenia and feel obliged to address
all three negative assessments it contains,' stressed Harutyunyan in
his letter to the chairperson of the PACE ad hoc Committee for
observation of Presidential elections in Armenia Karin Woldseth and
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Jean-Claude Mignon.
The first `crucial matter of concern for the delegation is the
continuing substantial inaccuracies in the voter list.' According to
Armenian official, such negative assessment was pre cooked even before
the delegation's meeting with the main body responsible for handling
the electoral register, the Police, as the written press release in
English and Armenian was distributed immediately after that meeting.
`In fact this negative assessment was copy-pasted from the notorious
report of the delegation led by Baroness Nicholson on Parliamentary
elections in Armenia in May 2012. Since we considered the allegations
of that report as fake and ignoring any reasonable explanations
rendered by the Armenian authorities, after the Parliamentary
elections of 2012 we invited PACE to undertake a post-electoral
mission in order to verify the accuracy of the voters' lists 1 .
Unfortunately the organization did not accept our invitation, but
rather decided to continue the same path - making unsubstantiated and
false accusations on the quality of the voters' list,' stresses
Harutyunyan.
In his letter he addresses the main concerns of the CoE observers, in
particular:
a. The large number of passports issued in 2011-2012 is simply due to
the fact that Armenia introduced national passports two decades ago
back in 1992 with a 10-year validity period.
b. The increase of the numbers of voters by 157 thousands between two
previous national elections as opposed to the decrease of demographic
indicators is conditioned by three major factors: the large number of
those born between 1990 and 1994 turning into electoral age which is
overweighting the death rate (142 thousands for the period 2008-2012)
for about 270 thousand2; abrupt increase of number of dual citizens
(43,800); and new stricter requirements to passport holders to
indicate permanent residency address, which was not the case in the
past.
`Of course for any country it is theoretically impossible to eliminate
absolutely all inaccuracies in the voters' lists. However, Armenian
authorities eliminated them to the highest extent possible,' notes
Harutyunyan.
Moreover, the legislation itself contained sufficient safeguards. Any
person may check at any time (irrespective of elections) whether he or
she or any other person is in a voters' register or not. The voters'
lists are posted for public scrutiny at polling stations 40 days
before elections and they are also made available for download on the
Internet in a user-friendly format. Any person, party, NGO or other
organization have the opportunity during 35 days to formally request
the initiation of an administrative procedure to eliminate
inaccuracies. The final lists are published two days before each
election and they shall also be available for download on the
Internet, reads the letter by the Armenian MP.
`Any objective observer definitely would conclude that Armenia
achieved an outstanding progress following recommendations from the
Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR to compile an accurate voter
register,' mentions Harutyunyan. `I can insist without any doubt that
voter register of Armenia is one of the most accurate voter registers
among Council of Europe member states.'
Concerning the second negative assessment, a decision of number of
major political parties not to present presidential candidates because
of their lack of trust in the conduct of the election, and the lack of
interest and confidence in the electoral process by the general
public, Harutyunyan writes that this assessment was paraphrased from
the previous ungrounded report of Baroness Nicholson.
`It is worth to mention that some international observers attending
recent parliamentary elections noted that there is no generalized lack
of trust towards election and this is confirmed by the unprecedented
level of participation 62.8% of the total number of eligible voters.
Comparative study of voter participation across member states of the
Council of Europe could help draw certain conclusions,' reads the
Armenian official's letter.
According to him, three presidential candidates - MP Hrant Bagratyan
(former prime minister, leader of the Freedom party), Paruyr Hayrikyan
(former Soviet dissident), and Raffi Hovhannisyan (former minister of
foreign affairs, leader of the Heritage party) - are prominent public
and political figures.
`So these elections are as competitive as the previous elections,'
Harutyunyan stresses. `Unfortunately the delegation has either failed
to check or has preferred not to refer to the official explanations of
those `expected presidential candidates' about the reasons why they
decided not to participate. For example, the first President of
Armenia, currently the leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC)
officially announced in December 2012 that he was not going to make
another bid to return to power in February's presidential election
citing his age as the reason for his decision.'
Concerning the third negative assessment, confusion about the right to
vote for Armenians living abroad, Harutyunyan stresses that this
suggestion is `well beyond the framework of the observer mission.'
According to the MP, as a matter of internal policy, Armenia has
chosen to allow exercise of national electoral rights only
domestically.
`In no way does this constitute a violation of the right to vote and
it is within the margin of appreciation of any state to decide on the
matter. For some reason, about which we can only guess, these facts
have been conveniently overlooked by the delegation,' stresses Davit
Harutyunyan.
According to him, the press release by European observers contains
`false accusations and exaggerated concerns with fairness and proper
nature of the elections, thus affecting public trust, confidence and
interest in elections thus undermining the democratic process in
Armenia.'
`I strongly believe that observer missions should be conducted with
the strict application of two most important principles: fairness and
factual base. Unfortunately this press release failed on both
accounts. The issue at stake is the credibility of the PACE
observation mission,' concludes Harutyunyan.