The OSCE/ODIHR observation mission monitoring the 2013 presidential election in Armenia has published its final report on the election. The document mentions the election campaign and states that fundamental freedoms were generally respected, and all contestants could campaign without hindrance, but the OSCE/ODIHR observers noticed abuse of power and administrative resources to the incumbent president’s advantage. www.aravot.am inquired of Aram Harutyunyan, a former candidate for president, whether he agreed with the ideas expressed in the report and how he would describe the report. He basically said the following: “The observers must have been drunk too much and mixed up everything, since I also said during a meeting with them that it was a disgraceful situation, there were pressures, coverage was not good, the facts put forward were distorted. I don’t know what influence they were under when they said such a thing. They want our government to be weak. I told them too that political interests underlay every statement of theirs. On the other hand, if we look into it, we will see that everything that enters Armenia gets spoiled, including Europeans. The current government is to blame for that. The sooner we get rid of it, the better it will be for Armenia and our people.”
Arman Melikyan, a former candidate for president, in his turn, said: “Wherever there is abuse of power and administrative resources to the incumbent present’s advantage, it is not logical to state that fundamental freedoms were generally respected, and all contestants had equal opportunities to carry out an election campaign. I can understand the willingness of the authors of the report to distort the real picture, and in that context, their skillfulness in selective and targeted use of facts and information gives esthetic pleasure. However, being more or less aware of what happened, I cannot share many claims made in the report. Firstly, I cannot help but notice that many facts are not mentioned in the report.” Hovsep Khurshudyan, the press secretary of the Heritage Party, noted that the report was very moderate and didn’t reflect the reality that the current government had seized power. “I can just assume that the support that was shown to the government by this report has geopolitical context. At the end of the day, support is continuously shown to the government by such moderate statements. Certainly, the theses that reflect the vicious realities are agreeable, but we generally think that it is too moderate a report and generally doesn’t reflect what happened on February 18.”
Andrias Ghukasyan, a former candidate for president, thinks that the report really aimed at serving Serzh Sargsyan’s legitimization. “There is no mention in the report that citizens of the Republic of Armenia and political forces have raised the issue of rigged elections. No mention is made of the fact that obvious political processes transpire in Armenia instead of elections. Also, the idea that fundamental freedoms were respected is false, since those who drew up the report contradict themselves. If it is mentioned that the government used pressure, what respect for fundamental freedoms can one talk about? It is understandable that this sentence was just included in the report, so that it can be used as a cliché, since it contradicts all the conclusions drawn in the report.” Continuing, A. Ghukasyan stated: “It turns out that the OSCE advises the ruling party not to commit crimes in the Republic of Armenia, since political pressure and bribing during elections are punishable by law. Although it was obvious that the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) used election bribery, observers tried their best not to notice it. This makes one think that observers bear no responsibility, and since they communicate with the criminal regime, there is no guarantee
that this kind of observation missions will do proper work, and the OSCE will not ruin its reputation as an organization protecting human rights.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
