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Voter Complaints Dismissed by Yerevan's Electoral Commissions
00:37, May 10, 2013
By Tamara S. Voskanian
Following Yerevan's May 5 municipal election, in which a variety of
voting day violations were observed by election monitors, attorneys
have filed approximately 160 complaints with the Territorial Electoral
Commissions of the four Precincts representing the following three
districts of Armenia's capital: Sebastia-Malatia, Shengavit, and
Erebuni-Nubarashen. The initial complaints had to be filed by 6 pm on
the Monday following the elections - an extremely short deadline given
the number of recorded violations.On May 8th at approximately 3 pm,
the Electoral Commissionsfor the above-mentioned precincts notified
the attorneys who filed the complaints that all four hearings
werescheduled to take place at 7 pmthat same evening, within several
hours of the call.
During the hearings, the four Electoral Commissions uniformly
dismissed all the applications on procedural grounds, without allowing
the attorneys a chance to present their cases. Each of the four
rejections wereworded identically, although they purported to address
different allegations,strongly indicating that the decisions had
beenpre-determined. The attorneys believe that the texts were supplied
to the Territorial Commissions by the national Central Electoral
Commission (CEC), thereby depriving the attorneys of pursuing what
would have otherwise been the next step: appealing the decisions of
the Territorial Commissions to the CEC.
Consequently, the attorneys have now decided to appeal the Territorial
decisions directly to the Administrative Court - a court whose
decision will be final and not subject to appeal.The attorneys are
also working on a strategy to file a case with the Constitutional
Court of Armenia. The goal of this lawsuit is to have the
Constitutional Court extend the deadline for the filing of complaints
with the Territorial Electoral Commissions, allowing a reasonable
amount of time to prepare the cases. In this lawsuit, the attorneys
will also be asking the high court to give election observersthe same
right to challenge the validity of the vote at polling stations that
political parties and their proxies currently have.
The complaints that have been filed to-date allege a variety of
infringements of the rights of voters, election observers and media
representatives, and general violations of Armenia's Electoral Code.
Allegations include the following acts that were witnessed and
recorded by observers:
-Commission presidents failing to record violations in the registry,
as they are required to do.
-Party candidates entering polling stations during voting, which is
prohibited by law; when asked to leave, coming back and posing as a
party proxy.
-Instances where more than one party proxy was present at a polling
station; the law allows each party only one proxy per polling station.
-A Republican Party commission president using violence in polling station 7/15.
-One instance where a commission member allowed someone to vote in
place of her sister, who was not physically in Yerevan on election
day.
-Two instances in which video camera equipmentwas stolen.
The goal of filing thecomplaints is not necessarily to overturn the
final results of the election, as the margin between the parties who
took first and second place is significantly large. Still, registering
violationsand documenting the lack of action by electoral authorities
in the face of apparent fraud is a crucial step in the post-election
process.Through strategic litigation and a continuous campaign of
pressure on the electoral authorities, attorneys hope to bring about
necessary and positive changes to both the country's Electoral Code
and the behavior of the authorities, with the ultimate goal of
developing Armenia's election process into one that is truly free,
fair and transparent.
Photograph courtesy of Eric Grigorian. Lawyers Tigran Yegoryan and
Lousineh Hakobyan view video footage and discuss electoral code
violations with diasporan repatriate Babken Der Grigorian who was a
monitor in District 7 during the Yerevan elections.
http://hetq.am/eng/news/26378/voter-complaints-dismissed-by-yerevan%E2%80%99s-electoral-commissions.html
From: Baghdasarian
00:37, May 10, 2013
By Tamara S. Voskanian
Following Yerevan's May 5 municipal election, in which a variety of
voting day violations were observed by election monitors, attorneys
have filed approximately 160 complaints with the Territorial Electoral
Commissions of the four Precincts representing the following three
districts of Armenia's capital: Sebastia-Malatia, Shengavit, and
Erebuni-Nubarashen. The initial complaints had to be filed by 6 pm on
the Monday following the elections - an extremely short deadline given
the number of recorded violations.On May 8th at approximately 3 pm,
the Electoral Commissionsfor the above-mentioned precincts notified
the attorneys who filed the complaints that all four hearings
werescheduled to take place at 7 pmthat same evening, within several
hours of the call.
During the hearings, the four Electoral Commissions uniformly
dismissed all the applications on procedural grounds, without allowing
the attorneys a chance to present their cases. Each of the four
rejections wereworded identically, although they purported to address
different allegations,strongly indicating that the decisions had
beenpre-determined. The attorneys believe that the texts were supplied
to the Territorial Commissions by the national Central Electoral
Commission (CEC), thereby depriving the attorneys of pursuing what
would have otherwise been the next step: appealing the decisions of
the Territorial Commissions to the CEC.
Consequently, the attorneys have now decided to appeal the Territorial
decisions directly to the Administrative Court - a court whose
decision will be final and not subject to appeal.The attorneys are
also working on a strategy to file a case with the Constitutional
Court of Armenia. The goal of this lawsuit is to have the
Constitutional Court extend the deadline for the filing of complaints
with the Territorial Electoral Commissions, allowing a reasonable
amount of time to prepare the cases. In this lawsuit, the attorneys
will also be asking the high court to give election observersthe same
right to challenge the validity of the vote at polling stations that
political parties and their proxies currently have.
The complaints that have been filed to-date allege a variety of
infringements of the rights of voters, election observers and media
representatives, and general violations of Armenia's Electoral Code.
Allegations include the following acts that were witnessed and
recorded by observers:
-Commission presidents failing to record violations in the registry,
as they are required to do.
-Party candidates entering polling stations during voting, which is
prohibited by law; when asked to leave, coming back and posing as a
party proxy.
-Instances where more than one party proxy was present at a polling
station; the law allows each party only one proxy per polling station.
-A Republican Party commission president using violence in polling station 7/15.
-One instance where a commission member allowed someone to vote in
place of her sister, who was not physically in Yerevan on election
day.
-Two instances in which video camera equipmentwas stolen.
The goal of filing thecomplaints is not necessarily to overturn the
final results of the election, as the margin between the parties who
took first and second place is significantly large. Still, registering
violationsand documenting the lack of action by electoral authorities
in the face of apparent fraud is a crucial step in the post-election
process.Through strategic litigation and a continuous campaign of
pressure on the electoral authorities, attorneys hope to bring about
necessary and positive changes to both the country's Electoral Code
and the behavior of the authorities, with the ultimate goal of
developing Armenia's election process into one that is truly free,
fair and transparent.
Photograph courtesy of Eric Grigorian. Lawyers Tigran Yegoryan and
Lousineh Hakobyan view video footage and discuss electoral code
violations with diasporan repatriate Babken Der Grigorian who was a
monitor in District 7 during the Yerevan elections.
http://hetq.am/eng/news/26378/voter-complaints-dismissed-by-yerevan%E2%80%99s-electoral-commissions.html
From: Baghdasarian