This time it will not be easy to rig elections, says Levon Barseghyan
By law, City Council members do not have the right to become members of district election commissions. However, several days ahead of a constitutional referendum in Armenia, the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office has found out cases of violations of the law. “We found out that representatives of different parties – 50 from the Republican Party of Armenia, 22 from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun and 10 from the Heritage Party, are included in election commissions in different marzes despite the fact that they are members of the Council of Elders. When we publicized our findings, the Heritage removed five of its representatives from the commissions,” Artur Sakunts, Head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office, said on Friday. He calls attention to another important thing: diversity of opinions was not ensured during the campaign in the December 6 constitutional referendum. “This time it will not be easy to rig elections. We warn all lithe and agile community heads that it will not be that easy to falsify the election results at precincts where we do not have observers,” said Levon Barseghyan, Chairman of Gyumri-based Asparez journalists' club. Lene Wetteland, a representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), also expressed her concerns about the conduct of fair elections, saying she had already encountered a non-democratic approach in Armenia. “I applied to the Central Election Commission of Armenia to accredit me as an international observer in the upcoming constitutional referendum in Armenia but my application was rejected. Now I shall observe the course of the referendum just a public observer,” she said.
