Davit Harutyunyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) council and the chairman of the National Assembly state and legal issues commission, talked about the pre-election statements made by the PACE interim committee’s pre-election monitoring delegation during a conversation with us today. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Mr. Harutyunyan said that he was currently working on his response to the observers’ remarks and would present it tomorrow in the form of a statement. “They have turned it into a kindergarten,” Mr. Harutyunyan expressed his discontent briefly.
Let us remind that members of the monitoring mission stated at a press conference yesterday: “The OSCE pre-election delegation has been informed about the efforts made to organize a democratic election, but it is concerned about the general lack of interest and trust in the process.” They also asserted: “An accurate list is a precondition for a proper election. There is no clarity yet about the voting right of those Armenians who live abroad. We are disappointed to see that the previous instructions to fix these problems haven’t been carried out.”
Armen Martirosyan, a member of the Heritage Party executive committee, stated about the observers’ remarks during a conversation with us: “The PACE observers’ preliminary remarks basically correspond to the current situation in our country. They also talk about the reasons that some political forces talk about a boycott, which is a wrong approach, and one shouldn’t disseminate mistrust in the institution of election. If we consider the PACE preliminary remarks in their entirety, then those problems really exist. If a part of society
says all the time that one shouldn’t participate in the election, naturally, it makes the government’s job easier, makes way for the incumbent president.”
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Mr. Martirosyan also reminds that the electoral mechanisms didn’t work in our country as it is, elections have always been rigged, and there has always been a problem of mistrust in the electoral processes among our society. Nonetheless, he thinks that if political forces assess the situation correctly, that problem can be corrected during the election campaign, starting struggle in the way the Heritage Party candidate has been doing for years.
The European observers said that the problems already criticized in the PACE report on the parliamentary election had been taken into account and solved by the government of the Republic of Armenia. It particularly concerns the cases of threats to voters and the cases of widespread use of administrative resources, which, according to the European observers’ preliminary remarks, haven’t been fixed. In response to a question of www.aravot.am, whether he agreed with that observation, Armen Martirosyan said: “The issues we have raised haven’t been solved. The first issue is inflation of voter registration lists, which is as yet unresolved. Now as well as before, we think that the list of those who have cast their votes should be made public, in order that we are able to compare. The second issue is the use of the administrative resource and election bribes, which have been there both in several local elections and in the latest additional parliamentary election. I don’t know whether they will be fixed in this election or not, but everyone knows that they have been there in all the previous elections. If the government assured, and the observers accepted, it is their problem. We need a tangible and factual situation, in order that the previous assessment is changed.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
