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DECISION 2013: LEGAL BATTLE OVER, PASSIONS OVER ARMENIAN VOTE CONTINUE
VOTE 2013 | 15.03.13 | 10:25
Photolure
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
For the fourth time in the history of independent Armenia its
Constitutional Court has rejected opposition claims of fraud in
presidential elections.
Thursday's verdict on the February 18, 2013 vote upheld President
Serzh Sargsyan's reelection, while the general situation with disputed
ballots continues to do little to promote people's confidence in
electoral processes.
Armenia adopted its new Electoral Code just over a year ago. Head
of the Parliamentary Committee on State and Legal Affairs David
Harutyunyan said the Code allowed citizens to control the elections.
But he, however, admitted that the ruling Republican Party would have
to initiate new amendments to the Code.
The opposition singled out one of the disadvantages of the current
electoral system still when the Election Code was at the stage of
debate. It is the absence of the obligation to publish the lists of
voters who actually go to the polls. The ruling party insists that
this is right, and the Venice Commission has endorsed this approach,
as it potentially could be a violation of the principle of secret
ballot. The opposition has disputed such an approach, saying that
going to the polls is already a public act and whether a citizen has
voted or not should not be made a secret of.
In the May 2012 parliamentary elections the opposition accused the
authorities of violations that could only be proved or disproved by
publishing the list of voters who cast their ballots in the elections.
The opposition claims that the government has been using the votes
of citizens who have left Armenia on a temporary or permanent basis
as well as people who do not go to the polls to ensure a victory
for their candidates. The opposition believes the authorities have
stuffed ballot boxes with hundreds of invalid papers voted in favor
of incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan.
"The law-enforcement agencies, the Central Election Commission (CEC)
and territorial election commissions showed complete inaction. Unless
the Court supported Serzh Sargsyan, it should have granted our
request for all the bags of ballot papers to be opened up to see
what's what," said Heritage Party lawmaker Zaruhi Postanjyan, who
represented opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian's interests in
court during the four-day litigation.
In order to remove all doubt, the authorities only need to open the
bags with ballot papers, but the ruling party and the CEC have flatly
refused to do so, and the Constitutional Court has not obliged them
to do so.
Meanwhile, even in its interim report OSCE/ODIHR, the largest
international vote-monitoring group, expressed concern at "a
correlation between very high turnout and the number of votes for
the incumbent." It described as "implausibly high" a turnout of more
than 80 percent that was recorded in 144 precincts, compared with the
official nationwide rate of 60 percent. Sargsyan got over 80 percent
of votes cast in the vast majority of those mostly rural communities,
according to the CEC.
Hovannisian won in precincts where turnout was around the average,
but still that landed him only an overall 37 percent of the vote,
compared to Sargsyan's official tally of close to 59 percent. The
opposition candidate has been staging protests in recent weeks urging
Sargsyan to admit his defeat and retire. He has been on a hunger
strike with a similar demand since March 10, vowing to continue his
action until April 9, the official Inauguration Day.
Director of the Regional Studies Center Richard Giragosian evaluates
the current post-election situation in Armenia with just one word:
crisis. "It is a crisis of confidence, not only in the government, but
also in the opposition that faces certain problems," says the analyst.
The authorities accuse the opposition of failing to present any
sound proof of violations that it claims occurred during the voting,
including at the legal process in the Constitutional Court.
Representatives of the opposition in election commissions indeed
signed all final voting records. As it turned out later, an election
commission member who does not sign the protocol in the end does not
get his or her salary paid either. And to get money for their work,
commission members signed the reports.
Commenting on the Court's observation that proxies of the Hovannisian
party did not ensure proper monitoring of the voting process and did
not use their opportunities in full to challenge the election results,
lawyer of the Heritage Party campaign headquarters Karen Mezhlumyan
said that in areas where representatives of Hovannisian were able
to oversee the process, the opposition leader won. "In places where
there was not sufficient control, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan
won the vote by 90 or 100 percent," he said.
After the verdict of the Constitutional Court it became clear that
Sargsyan and his party consider the elections over, but experts do
not exclude that during his second and last term in office the current
head of state will initiates a drastic legislative reform. There are
even opinions that Sargsyan may agree with the demand of Heritage
and some other opposition parties to switch to a parliamentary form
of government, so that at the end of his presidential term he could
become prime minister of a parliamentary republic.
VOTE 2013 | 15.03.13 | 10:25
Photolure
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
For the fourth time in the history of independent Armenia its
Constitutional Court has rejected opposition claims of fraud in
presidential elections.
Thursday's verdict on the February 18, 2013 vote upheld President
Serzh Sargsyan's reelection, while the general situation with disputed
ballots continues to do little to promote people's confidence in
electoral processes.
Armenia adopted its new Electoral Code just over a year ago. Head
of the Parliamentary Committee on State and Legal Affairs David
Harutyunyan said the Code allowed citizens to control the elections.
But he, however, admitted that the ruling Republican Party would have
to initiate new amendments to the Code.
The opposition singled out one of the disadvantages of the current
electoral system still when the Election Code was at the stage of
debate. It is the absence of the obligation to publish the lists of
voters who actually go to the polls. The ruling party insists that
this is right, and the Venice Commission has endorsed this approach,
as it potentially could be a violation of the principle of secret
ballot. The opposition has disputed such an approach, saying that
going to the polls is already a public act and whether a citizen has
voted or not should not be made a secret of.
In the May 2012 parliamentary elections the opposition accused the
authorities of violations that could only be proved or disproved by
publishing the list of voters who cast their ballots in the elections.
The opposition claims that the government has been using the votes
of citizens who have left Armenia on a temporary or permanent basis
as well as people who do not go to the polls to ensure a victory
for their candidates. The opposition believes the authorities have
stuffed ballot boxes with hundreds of invalid papers voted in favor
of incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan.
"The law-enforcement agencies, the Central Election Commission (CEC)
and territorial election commissions showed complete inaction. Unless
the Court supported Serzh Sargsyan, it should have granted our
request for all the bags of ballot papers to be opened up to see
what's what," said Heritage Party lawmaker Zaruhi Postanjyan, who
represented opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian's interests in
court during the four-day litigation.
In order to remove all doubt, the authorities only need to open the
bags with ballot papers, but the ruling party and the CEC have flatly
refused to do so, and the Constitutional Court has not obliged them
to do so.
Meanwhile, even in its interim report OSCE/ODIHR, the largest
international vote-monitoring group, expressed concern at "a
correlation between very high turnout and the number of votes for
the incumbent." It described as "implausibly high" a turnout of more
than 80 percent that was recorded in 144 precincts, compared with the
official nationwide rate of 60 percent. Sargsyan got over 80 percent
of votes cast in the vast majority of those mostly rural communities,
according to the CEC.
Hovannisian won in precincts where turnout was around the average,
but still that landed him only an overall 37 percent of the vote,
compared to Sargsyan's official tally of close to 59 percent. The
opposition candidate has been staging protests in recent weeks urging
Sargsyan to admit his defeat and retire. He has been on a hunger
strike with a similar demand since March 10, vowing to continue his
action until April 9, the official Inauguration Day.
Director of the Regional Studies Center Richard Giragosian evaluates
the current post-election situation in Armenia with just one word:
crisis. "It is a crisis of confidence, not only in the government, but
also in the opposition that faces certain problems," says the analyst.
The authorities accuse the opposition of failing to present any
sound proof of violations that it claims occurred during the voting,
including at the legal process in the Constitutional Court.
Representatives of the opposition in election commissions indeed
signed all final voting records. As it turned out later, an election
commission member who does not sign the protocol in the end does not
get his or her salary paid either. And to get money for their work,
commission members signed the reports.
Commenting on the Court's observation that proxies of the Hovannisian
party did not ensure proper monitoring of the voting process and did
not use their opportunities in full to challenge the election results,
lawyer of the Heritage Party campaign headquarters Karen Mezhlumyan
said that in areas where representatives of Hovannisian were able
to oversee the process, the opposition leader won. "In places where
there was not sufficient control, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan
won the vote by 90 or 100 percent," he said.
After the verdict of the Constitutional Court it became clear that
Sargsyan and his party consider the elections over, but experts do
not exclude that during his second and last term in office the current
head of state will initiates a drastic legislative reform. There are
even opinions that Sargsyan may agree with the demand of Heritage
and some other opposition parties to switch to a parliamentary form
of government, so that at the end of his presidential term he could
become prime minister of a parliamentary republic.