The last week of the campaign is drawing to an end. International and local organizations, representatives of foreign embassies accredited in Armenia have been registered in the Central Election Commission (CEC) to carry out a monitoring mission during the presidential election in Armenia to be held on February 18. The local organizations are Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office (81 observers), the Democratic and Electoral Processes NGO (36 observers), the Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS (77 observers), the Center for Electoral Systems (60 observers), the Dilnet Service (71 observers), the Choice Is Yours (1066 observers), the Martuni Women’s Community Council (285), the Capacity and Development for Civil Society (65), and the Harmony (470 observers) NGOs, the Unison NGO for Support of People With Special Needs (15), the Civil Society Institute (67) and the Helsinki Committee of Armenia (103) NGOs. The representatives of the organizations carrying out a monitoring mission summed up the results during a conversation with www.aravot.am. Anahit Gevorgyan, the head of the Martuni Women’s Community Council NGO, stated during a conversation with us that they had provided the passport office with the information regarding the dead, changes of addresses and other information; they had quickly removed the dead. However, the issue of those absent from the country is still unclear. A. Gevorgyan went into detail: “I applied to the CEC; Mr. Mukuchyan said that in the places, where there were changes of addresses, the passport office should give an additional list of former and current addresses, so that the voters have no problem.” While talking about the election campaign, our interlocutor referred to S. Sargsyan’s campaign and went into detail: “The meeting with the president was with invitations; they would enter only after showing an invitation. Even our coordinator who had an invitation was not allowed to enter with a camera, since he was not accredited. The whole resource was used to meet the president. There were police officers, the streets were closed. I think it is not right. Or a meeting with invitations; they should be ashamed of themselves.” A. Gevorgyan assured that election bribes hadn’t been handed out in their town yet and added: “There are even such people who expect and are confused. There will be no need for that; they are sure to win. Everything is based on people’s explanatory work.” Armen Alaverdyan, the CEO of the Unison NGO, stated that the majority of polling stations were inaccessible for voters and went on: “35 out of 464 polling stations that have been checked are completely accessible, 42 are almost accessible, and the rest are inaccessible. The rights of deaf voters are disregarded again, since the election campaign is not accompanied by sign language translation. The CEC has shot all of its videos with sign language translation, and the candidates haven’t. It is in question whether there will be special templates for the blind; there should be lenses in all polling stations for people who have vision problems, will they be there or not? We examined the accessibility 10 years ago; there were 10 accessible polling stations in all Yerevan at the time. Now there are 34; so there is progress, but it’s too slow. There are no means of transportation at all; a question arises how the disabled will reach the polling stations.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
