Hovhannes Hovhannisyan vs. Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) – a dispute in absentia
Lately Tigran Mukuchyan, the Chairman of CEC of the Republic of Armenia, has claimed that the voting lists cannot cause fraud during the upcoming general election. In the meantime, the processes that have taken place in the independent Armenia so far have proved that Mr. Mukuchyan’s claims do not correspond to the reality. Representatives of various political forces have mentioned that lots of times and first president of Armenia and leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Levon Ter-Petrossian analyzed that issue in detail in his speech on October 28, referring also to the WikiLeaks revelations. Let me remind that the first president has raised the issue of printing 500 000 additional ballots before the previous presidential election, the issue of 500 000 citizens in the voting list who are absent from the country – the issue that was raised by the Chargés d’Affaires ad interim of the US Godfrey during a meeting with Robert Kocharyan on April 26, 2007. The American official said at the time that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) monitoring mission would necessarily refer to that in its rapporteur, however, as it became known afterwards from Wikileaks 07YEREVAN522 document, the American side was not going to make a public speech on that before the end of the election “for fear of unhelpfully undermining public confidence in the polls.” The first president also alarmed the increase of the number of voters in the voting lists, given the emigration, pointing out, in particular, the fact of including 500 000 voters absent from the country in the voting lists. The first president also talked about the proportional representation seats in the parliament, as well as other factors decreasing the possibility of election fraud. However, judging from Mukuchyan’s interviews, the establishment is not going to review the lists, to really improve the election legislation.
Yesterday Hovhannes Havhannisyan, a member of ANC and the leader of the Liberal Party of Armenia, referring to the claims of the CEC Chairman about the ideal voting lists, said, “I pity that Mukuchyan makes such statements and takes that path, because I thought Mukuchyan would be fairer and being appointed the CEC Chairman, would try to carry out some reforms. I mean, as a man responsible for the elections, he would try not to make the same mistake as all the CEC chairmen for the past 10-15 years, but would avoid crimes, as every rigged election is a crime against the state and the people.” Mr. Hovhannisyan is confused – when has Mr. Mukuchyan managed to carry out checkups in such a short period of time, as he assures that the check-up mechanism is very complex and requires time? “They have taken the shortest route, laying foundation of the future election fraud by the support of CEC from the beginning, and they will engage Armenia in serious domestic policy problems, even conflicts. If this election is also rigged, we may have a much more serious and catastrophic situation than in 2008.”
At the same time, my interlocutor calls the statements voiced by various establishment figures and groups demagogy, adding that such elections are needed not by the authorities, but the state and the current establishment, resembling their “clan” with the state, threatens the existence of state, “They have no right to identify their interim power with the state, but if they try to do so, let them take into account that if there is the beginning in politics, there is also the end. They must understand that it is the decline of their political ideas, if they have such, and their power, and hand their positions over to the political forces elected by the people through fair and honest elections.” I also inquired what mechanisms ANC were going to use, in order to preserve their votes, as the establishment did not show practical readiness to hold free elections at the moment. “These people or this society are not the property of the ruling party and they have never voted for this establishment. The establishment knows it quite well. Now, the society has to vote for the force it prefers. Rigging this election, the establishment will declare a war not only on a certain political force, but on its own people. We are going for an election, not for a war, in order to think how to prevent it. We are politicians and are going for the people’s votes. If we are challenged, we will preserve our votes, but the results and the responsibility for that will be borne by the establishment and Mr. Mukuchyan. At the end of the day, there is the judgment of the society, the people and the God”, said Hovhannes Hovhannisyan.
NELLY GRIGORYAN
