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Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor commenting on some of the preliminary conclusion of the parliamentary elections of May 6, 2012 by OSCE/ODHIR observers, noted that there was no hint of “carousel voting” in their reports. “Perhaps the international observers could not adequately evaluate the massive number of envelopes and their potential risks at a polling station?

In terms of stating facts, the report is fairly objective: the statement regarding peaceful and quiet elections is formally correct; however, it should have been noted that the elections were virtually a controlled  process. The observers did not take into account the atmosphere of impunity. If violence against a woman by the Governor of Syunik is not criminally punished , you can imagine the state of the constituency in this region. The OSCE observers monitored only the pre-election campaign and the voting day, as if life is limited to that only.”

There are claims about quite serious violations in the preliminary conclusion. For instance, “The international observers recorded individual cases of serious violations, such as; falsification of results or protocols (4 incidences) and it was observed that the ballot boxes were filled beforehand (5 incidences). The results in the protocols were not often checked; one in  3 of the PEC had problems with filling in the protocols and one in 4 of the PEC did not publish the copies of the protocols for public inspection».

As to the evaluation of CIS observers, Mr. Sakunts said that he would not comment on that because the CIS observers were mainly from countries with a dictatorial regime, “Where there are not and cannot be democratic elections, naturally, I do not have any expectations from those observers; maybe they consider it normal in their country, and that is why they evaluated it as normal here”.

Source: http://www.aravot.am