“This is a terrible exaggeration and inappropriate,” so commented an RPA faction MP, a member of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, Levon Martirosyan, on the fact which is enshrined in the report “Human Rights in Armenia-2016” according to which Armenia is switching to a police state. The report reads, “Even though 2016 was not a year of general elections, nevertheless, it was a year of political upheavals and mass-scale human rights violations. As in earlier political crises, during the July 2016 events even though the state of emergency had not be declared the elementary rights and laws were no longer in effect and Armenia seemed to become a police State.” There are a number of concerns in the Section of Electoral Rights of the report prepared by the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, particularly in connection with provisions of the new Electoral Code.
The report reads, “At the same time, the new Electoral Code placed limitations for observers and mass media representatives. It states that by a two-thirds majority vote the precinct electoral commission has the power to remove an observer or a media representative from the commission session or from the polling station, if the commission believes that the observer or the media representative has violated the Electoral Code requirements and to set the upper limit (of up to 15) to the number of observers and reporters who can be present in the polling room simultaneously.”
The other concern refers to the issue of criminalization of a false report about election fraud. The report expresses the following concern: ” On 19 October 2016, the National Assembly discussed an issue of criminalization of a false report about election fraud. Five political parties represented in the National Assembly (Republican Party of Armenia, Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun, Rule of Law Party, Prosperous Armenia Party and Armenian National Congress) reached an agreement to include a provision that a fine of 200,000-800,000 AMD or a prison term for up to 2 years shall be imposed for a deliberate or careless action. A person or an observer who witnesses election fraud will beware of reporting it taking into consideration the fact that the judicial system in Armenia is not independent. One gets an impression that the powers that be seek not to improve the election processes but to silence the public.”
To our question of whether the concerns enshrined in the report are discussed in the RA NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, and what recommendations for the solution are made, Mr. Martirosyan responded reminding that once the Election Code was adopted unanimously, “The EC was finally adopted in the fall and was passed by a consensus. Almost all of them with the exception of one or two people who voted abstained, the whole Committee unanimously passed this document. Hence, these concerns are inopportune because if a similar problem existed, our opposition members would definitely have voted ‘cons’.”
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The report also covered the cases of violence against journalists, especially during the last local elections. Specifically, it reads, “According to the Committee To Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE), 4 instances of obstruction of media representatives’ professional activities (including 2 that were accompanied with physical violence) were registered during the local elections.” Mr. Martirosyan urged to observe and mention specific facts. We informed that everything is evident in the report and specific facts are illustrated one by one by their names. RPA MP said, “If there are facts, it is a concern. If violence is used against journalists, definitely it is a concern but each specific case should be observed separately.”
