David Harutyunyan: "They simply claim"
Will Head of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) David Harutyunyan criticize the final report of the OSCE/ODIHR on the May 6 NA elections the same way he criticized the PACE observation mission's report?
"There are more arguments in the report, and there are many arguments or conclusions that I can't agree with. There are also disputed points, but we can at least debate over those," said David Harutyunyan in response to "A1+"'s question in Strasbourg.
In the report released by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights two days ago, the international observers particularly record that some competing forces had violated the provisions of propaganda, had misused administrative resources and had tried to set limits on the freedom of election, which goes against the obligations that Armenia has assumed in front of the OSCE.
As far as the PACE observation mission's strict evaluations of the report, Harutyunyan told "A1+":
"Unfortunately, that report doesn't contain provisions that can be discussed through arguments because the opposing side says it isn't aware of the arguments and has written the report based on others' opinions. With this, they put you in an awkward situation. You don't agree, but the opposing side can't debate. It simply claims."
By saying "others", perhaps the PACE observers mean the OSCE/ODIHR observers. "The fact of the matter is that even the positive feedback from the OSCE observers has been presented as negative in the PACE report. The PACE observers worked skillfully. They don't write anything negative, but write in a way to make the reader feel that there is something negative. When we ask them why they wrote that way, they tell us to ask the readers if it was negative. If 9 out of 10 readers say it left a negative impression, it means that you are very unskillful to express your views properly or the opposite," says Harutyunyan.
In an interview with "A1+" and Aravot Daily, Harutyunyan said he didn't have facts to claim that head of the PACE observation mission Emma Nicholson prepared that kind of a report intentionally, but that he could give a general political evaluation of the report. "I see artificiality and quite a lot of skillful work that is aimed at leaving a bad impression."
"A1+" asked Harutyunyan if it was likely that Armenia would make amendments in the Electoral Code before the upcoming presidential elections by taking the OSCE/ODIHR and PACE reports into account, David Harutyunyan said: "I don't rule out making some corrections, but only after holding preliminary discussions with the Venice Commission."
In an interview with "A1+", Secretary of the CE Venice Commission Thomas Marker assessed the RA Electoral Code and mentioned that the main problem was the implementation of the provisions since there can be a reform in the text, but no enforcement.
Karine Asatryan
Strasbourg
