THIS WAS THE PRELUDE

  Armenia was strongly criticized in PACE yesterday. But the main discussion will be made on April 17.

 John Prescott’s report on the presidential elections in Armenia held on February 19 was discussed in the PACE plenary session. It was discussed within the framework of progress report of PACE Bureau and standing committee. It is noted in the preface of that report that the presidential elections in Armenia were administered mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards, the authorities have improved the electoral code but they “didn’t not enough political will to provide its complete fulfillment”.  John Prescott’s PACE ad hoc commission calls to the Armenian authorities to improve those omissions and proposals which are noted in this report, taking into account “public insufficient confidence towards electoral system and its results”.

 In his oral account which lasted 4 minutes, John Prescott described the current situation in Armenia as very difficult. And presented some emphasizes of his speech in brief, in particular, more attention  was paid on presidential candidate Serge Sargsyan’s campaign in the media  than on other candidates, the results of elections have not been recognized even before its official publication. “Anyway, we deal with very serious issues. But I will not continue, I will speak about it on Thursday.”

The activities of democratic institutions will be discussed on April 17 by all factions’ initiatives. Nobody objected to include this issue in the agenda yesterday. And though PACE President Luis Maria de Puig asked not to speak about Armenia during the progress reports of the bureau, taking into account the coming discussion, the first speech made by PACE Vice President, Hungarian  Zsolt Nemet was about our country. He declared that he cast doubt   the confirmation that the Armenian elections were mostly in line with the CE standards.

“Dear reporter, do you know that there were 9 victims because of those “fair” elections? Do you know that there are more than 100 political prisoners today? And do you know that when the state of emergency was removed, the laws which limited freedoms were still in force, in particular a law was adopted, which indeed limits the freedom of meetings, and this was done without discussing with the CE? Dear reporter do you know that the opposition do not recognize the legitimacy of the president and demands to hold special presidential elections. …the European People’s Party proposes the Armenian authorities to conduct independent investigation, and the opposition should be involved in it. If the Armenian authorities do not agree to conduct such investigation, the CE, PACE is obliged to conduct it.”

Swedish delegate Mariette de Purbakh-Lundin said in her speech that she had been included in different monitoring groups but the situation in Armenia was the worst. “The situation was mostly worst during counting of votes where I was included. The most awful thing was that the head of the polling station was aware that ballots voted in favor Levon Ter-Petrosyan are put on Serge Sargsyan’s ballots.” It was surprising that even the observer’s presence didn’t make them stop frauds.
“Do we help the people of Armenia, this way? – she asked and answered ,- I think we do not”.