0 8000 12 11

”We do not consider the elections to the National Assembly free or fair; the elections would be fair, if voters had an opportunity to express their free will, which unfortunately did not happen.As a result of the monitoring of elections, we  have numerous facts to prove this“,- said Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor.  Sakunts believes that the violations had a serious impact on the result of the elections.

On May 8^th during a press conference, A. Sakunts noted that the confidence of the constituency in the electoral processes has not improved. “And this is reasoned, by the fact, that despite all assurance calls relating to the election, violations were not handled properly“, he said.

Ninty-four observers of HCAV and one hundred four observers of the Goris Women’s Resource Center conducted short-term observations on May 6^th in Gyumri, Vanadzor, Ijevan and District 7, in Yerevan and they recorded a number of violations which will be presented completely in 10 days.

The violations are mainly related to disappearing stamps in passports, election bribes, open voting, and the phenomenon known as “circulating ballots”. Artur Sakunts noted that bribes were distributed mainly on the last days. Citizens’ calls were related to bribes distributed by the Republican Party of Armenia; however,there were rumors about bribes distributed by the Armenian Revolutionary Party and the Prosperous Armenia Party..

According to Sakunts, they have proof about bribes, such as: videos and photos, which they have submitted notes about to law enforcement bodies; however, the police have not responded to the submitted evidence.  The Chairman of HCAV claims that police activities were inadequateespecially compared to the number of calls received and they did not see any activities against election violations, in particular bribes.

According to Artur Sakunts’ evaluation, not all organizations conducting observations exercised their rights to prevent election violations and the improper use of law. A. Sakunts has facts which he will present in a final report.

He also stated that the electoral commissions were not prepared or willing to prevent election violations. “If we had just stood and observed, we would have witnessed the violations. But when an observer exercised his right and presented the violation to the head of commission, they were disregarded. It appears they were instructed to consider observers’ comments if possible,” said Artur Sakunts.

Speaking about the conclusions of the OSCE/ODIHR observers: from  a formal perspective he considered the report corresponding to reality but incomplete as pre-election violations and activities were not presented in the report.

He was surprised that there was no hint of subversive or covert activities in their reports. ”Perhaps the international observers could not adequately evaluate the massive numberof empty envelopes and their potential risks at a polling station?”- stated Sakunts.

As to the evaluation of CIS observers, he refused to comment because «they are mainly from countries with a dictatorial regime where they do not have democratic elections».

Author: Mery Alexanyan
Source: www.hra.am