YEREVAN, May 27 (Noyan Tapan). "Despite improvements in certain areas of
the electoral process over the last two months, Armenia's May 25 elections and
referendum on Constitutional reforms failed to cross the threshold of democratic
elections," Head of the international observation mission of the National
Democracy Institute (NDI) of the United States Patrick Merloe told a May 27
news conference. He presented the preliminary statement of the mission, according
to which, the election process passed in an atmosphere of cynicism, frustration
and anxiety, evidenced by low voter turnout and their lack of confidence in
the objectivity of electoral commissions.
The observations of the members of mission show that vote buying was widely
practiced by several political parties in the pre-election period. Noteworthy
is the fact that approximately one-third of the candidates registered for the
elections to majoritarian seats in the National Assembly surprisingly withdrew.
According to the observers, these factors have to be seen against the backdrop
of political intimidation, including improper detentions of opposition supporters
which surrounded the presidential elections and the runoff. The statement also
says that the US NDI observers registered a great number of violations. In Yerevan
polling station number 0054 of constituency 3, they witnessed voting under "strict
discipline" by over 300 military personnel, which contradicts to the law,
and in polling station 0596 of constituency 22 NDI observers witnessed the police
and representatives of the local government bodies move in and out of the polling
station during the counting of votes.
Meanwhile, according to the NDI representatives, there were also improvements
over prior elections, for example, the relatively balanced news coverage of
the major parties in the 40-day official campaign period by the Public television.
Patrick Merloe stated that to establish public confidence the authorities should
carry out an comprehensive and objective investigation and punish those who
infringed upon the voter right of citizens and the rights of the candidates.
He also said that Armenia and the Armenian people have corresponding potential
for holding democratic elections and the expression of a political will on the
part of the leaders of the country are more important here. The US NDI will
present its ultimate statement in a day and the observers will not leave Armenia
yet to observe the following processes.