0 8000 12 11

On December 16, 2016, Yerevan hosted a presentation and discussion of the final report on the elections to the Council of Elders of October 2, 2016 in Vanadzor and Gyumri cities prepared by 5 partner organizations (Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, Union of Informed Citizens, Martuni Women’s Community Council, Goris Press Club and Armenian Helsinki Committee). The presentation was attended by representatives of NGOs, governmental agencies, foreign embassies and the mass media. The Report was prepared under Capacity-building of Domestic Observer Organizations component of the European Union and Council of Europe joint project on Long-term Electoral Assistance to the Election Related Stakeholders of Armenia.

The presentation was opened by Loreta Vioiu, Deputy Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, and Artur Sakunts, Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, who welcomed the participants and thanked their partners for collaboration and efforts.

Then Anush Hambaryan, Democratic Monitoring and Reporting Specialist of HCA Vanadzor, presented the methodology of the observation mission, results of election campaign observation and data obtained on the accessibility of polling stations and the concerns of the organizations over this. Further to A. Hambaryan’s remarks, Daniel Ioannisyan, Project Coordinator of the Union of Informed Citizens, gave a brief outline of the facts recorded by the observers inside the polling stations and in their adjacent areas on the election day. Then Vardine Grigoryan, Democracy Monitoring and Reporting Coordinator of HCA Vanadzor, talked on the voter turnout and the decisions on the election results of the election commissions of polling stations №№ 30 and 34. Afterwards, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, voiced the Organization’s assessment of how the Venice Commission recommendations were implemented.

After the speeches, Tigran Mukuchyan, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, shared his views and observations on the Report and particularly expressed an opinion that there were violations only at certain polling stations and they had no impact on the election results and found no reasons to link the incidents of violence to the elections.

The discussion made it clear that the authors of the Report misinterpreted to some extent the RA Electoral Code provision on distribution of mandates which resulted in miscalculation of the number of mandates for each party.

Based on the outcomes of the discussion, the Report was revised.

For the full version of the Report, see HERE.