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VOTE 2013: AMBASSADOR'S BLOG SPARKS REACTIONS, BUT ACTION NOT FEASIBLE SAYS CEC HEAD
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
News | 24.01.13 | 14:45
Armenian authorities continue responding to British Ambassador
Catherine Leach's election-related critical comments posted on her
blog this week.
This time the response to her remarks concerning "the voter lists, the
involvement of public servants, responding vigorously to complaints"
has come from chairman of the Central Election Commission Tigran
Mukuchyan. In his interview to News.am he said that voter lists and
control over the voting process are two different institutes, thus
"conditioning one by the other and making judgments is unacceptable".
The British Ambassador in Armenia summing up the year of 2012 in her
blog made a reference to the forthcoming presidential elections. As
someone watching the election processes "from the outside", Leach wrote
that the state bodies have to pay closer attention to the voter lists.
"...the fact that the list has continued to increase since 1991 when
people's day to day experience tells them that the country has lost
population creates unease for the ordinary voter. Thinking about ways
to give people confidence in the list - perhaps by requiring an annual
re-registering - might be the answer in future. In the meantime,
the authorities can make every effort to follow up and investigate
precincts where there appear to be unusually high turn-out or vote
tabulations showing surprisingly repetitive numbers," she writes.
Responding to this, Mukuchyan says: "The main issue is related to the
voters absent from Armenia, which is a completely different institute.
The voter lists include all the registered citizens. Even if there are
citizens absent from the country or who might not be in the country
on the voting day and even if their number is great, it does not mean
anything and cannot lead to any conclusions."
Reflecting on the ambassador's suggestion concerning annual
re-registering, Mukuchyan says he has no idea how that would be
possible.
"The thing is that each citizen decides for him/herself to change
their place of registration, and submits a respective application
followed by the respective change in their records," says Mukuchyan,
adding that annual re-registration would cause serious challenges,
first of all burdening citizens with additional duties every year,
and then there is a question: should a voter be taken out of the
voter list without their knowledge and consent or not?"
It is worth noting that the United Kingdom will have 25 representatives
as part of OSCE/ODIHR observer mission to monitor the presidential
election. ODIHR, the biggest among international observer missions
(with 24 long-term and 250 short-term observers) has drafted an
interim report on the elections presenting details of the pre-election
processes in Armenia, but refraining from assessments.
The report in English is available at
www.osce.org/odihr/elections/98886
http://armenianow.com/news/42821/ambassador_catherine_leach_blog_voter_lists
From: Baghdasarian
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
News | 24.01.13 | 14:45
Armenian authorities continue responding to British Ambassador
Catherine Leach's election-related critical comments posted on her
blog this week.
This time the response to her remarks concerning "the voter lists, the
involvement of public servants, responding vigorously to complaints"
has come from chairman of the Central Election Commission Tigran
Mukuchyan. In his interview to News.am he said that voter lists and
control over the voting process are two different institutes, thus
"conditioning one by the other and making judgments is unacceptable".
The British Ambassador in Armenia summing up the year of 2012 in her
blog made a reference to the forthcoming presidential elections. As
someone watching the election processes "from the outside", Leach wrote
that the state bodies have to pay closer attention to the voter lists.
"...the fact that the list has continued to increase since 1991 when
people's day to day experience tells them that the country has lost
population creates unease for the ordinary voter. Thinking about ways
to give people confidence in the list - perhaps by requiring an annual
re-registering - might be the answer in future. In the meantime,
the authorities can make every effort to follow up and investigate
precincts where there appear to be unusually high turn-out or vote
tabulations showing surprisingly repetitive numbers," she writes.
Responding to this, Mukuchyan says: "The main issue is related to the
voters absent from Armenia, which is a completely different institute.
The voter lists include all the registered citizens. Even if there are
citizens absent from the country or who might not be in the country
on the voting day and even if their number is great, it does not mean
anything and cannot lead to any conclusions."
Reflecting on the ambassador's suggestion concerning annual
re-registering, Mukuchyan says he has no idea how that would be
possible.
"The thing is that each citizen decides for him/herself to change
their place of registration, and submits a respective application
followed by the respective change in their records," says Mukuchyan,
adding that annual re-registration would cause serious challenges,
first of all burdening citizens with additional duties every year,
and then there is a question: should a voter be taken out of the
voter list without their knowledge and consent or not?"
It is worth noting that the United Kingdom will have 25 representatives
as part of OSCE/ODIHR observer mission to monitor the presidential
election. ODIHR, the biggest among international observer missions
(with 24 long-term and 250 short-term observers) has drafted an
interim report on the elections presenting details of the pre-election
processes in Armenia, but refraining from assessments.
The report in English is available at
www.osce.org/odihr/elections/98886
http://armenianow.com/news/42821/ambassador_catherine_leach_blog_voter_lists
From: Baghdasarian