OBSERVERS HAVE NEGATIVE IMPRESSION

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“Your polling stations remind me a railway station” , announced Mr John Prescott, Head of the pre-election delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at the NA during the meeting with journalists. He was astonished by the advantages our Election Code grants. Mr John Prescott noted that he could not imagine 35 people in a polling station – members, observers, proxies, voters. “Only members of commission and voters have the right to be present in our polling stations”, said Mr Prescott. He presented the results of their observation mission, which almost concurred with the interim report of the OSCE/ODHIR.

PACE observers find: “Genuinely democratic elections, and the legitimacy of their outcome in the eyes of the people, depend on a high level of public confidence in the electoral process. In that respect, the delegation is concerned with the apparent lack of trust in the electoral process, including in the impartiality of the legal complaints and appeals process, expressed by a number of interlocutors. It therefore strongly recommends that the authorities take all necessary measures to ensure the public confidence in the electoral process, especially with regard to the secrecy of the vote and the transparency of the counting and tabulation processes”.

”The delegation regrets the clearly imbalanced media coverage on most broadcast media, including public television, before the official campaign period”.

”The delegation heard several complaints that the current Prime Minister, who is a Presidential candidate, would have unfair campaign advantages as a result of his decision to maintain his position as Prime Minister during the campaign period. While recognising the legality of the current Prime Minister to continue his functions despite being a candidate, it adds to the responsibility of the government to avoid any perception that administrative resources are abused in favour of, or against, any particular candidate”.

Mr John Prescott noted that the problems registered during the parliamentary elections should be overcome and noted that posted protocols were torn away quickly, thus: “The delegation hopes that the technical problems then encountered have been overcome and recommend that the CEC sets a minimal timeframe during which the results protocols have to be publicly posted at the polling stations”.

The European observers also noted: “The Election Code ensures a balanced composition of all election commissions, but it was noted that this balance was not reflected in the composition of the leadership troikas of the Territorial Election Commissions. The delegation hopes that this imbalance will not be repeated at the level of the Precinct Election Commissions”.

“The delegation welcomes that, till now, the election campaign has taken place in an open and unimpeded climate, but took note of reports by some candidates about their difficulties in obtaining campaign offices in some regions”.

”The delegation is confident that the authorities will address the concerns of the delegation and will continue its efforts to organise fully democratic Presidential Elections that will have the full confidence of the Armenian people”.

The European observes have met Robert Kocharyan, Chairmen of the NA and the Constitutional Court, Head of the Armenian Delegation to PACE, Ambassadors of European structures, representatives of mass media and NGOs, as well as 8 presidential candidates, but did not mention their names.

To the question whether Mr Prescott had met Levon Ter-Petrosyan and whether he was aware that two criminal cases were lodged against his supporters, Mr Prescott responded that they could not interfere in the case, since it referred to the RA law keepers.

The results of the monitoring the observers will hand over to the group of 30 observers, who will arrive on 18 February and are responsible for the observation of the whole election process. The final report is due in two months after the presidential elections.