The president of the Central Electoral Commission Tigran Mukuchyan spoke during the interview with Aravot.am of the criticisms addressed to him and the structure managed by him by the representatives of the observer’s mission stating that they operate exclusively with respect to legal regulations.
Then he summarized: “Let no one worry about us.” Let us mention that the member of “Citizen Observer” initiative, the head of the “Union of Informed Citizens” Lusine Hakobyan had announced that there were precedents that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia submit the accounts after the decisions of the ECHR to the judges whose decisions had caused such decision of the ECHR, and noted: “Thus, if Tigran Mukuchyan thinks that today he is told to make that decision, tomorrow it will have no effect on him, he is the one to pay from his pocket, therefore, he implements those orders obediently in vain.”
Mr. Mukuchyan told he had not seen the appeals of the “Congress-ANC” alliance to the Constitutional Court and had seen solely the appeal lodged to the Central Electoral Committee: “Thereby the law on Referendum was alleged and it implied the requirement to nullify the results of the elections. I do not make unnecessary comments.”
The observers had voiced series of other complaints on the operation of CEC specifically that on April 8 the CEC had not accepted their appeal stating that it was a non-working day, meanwhile had invited a session on the same day. Tigran Mukuchyan explained: “It is clearly pinned in the Electoral Code that no appeals can be lodged within non-working days but within the proceeding Monday, which has been implemented by them. And CEC sitting is the requirement of the Electoral Code, particularly the overview of the election results, pursuant to the Electoral Code requirement, the deadline was expiring on Sunday. However, the same Electoral Code has pinned the deadlines of the submission of the appeals.” Lusine Hakobyan was insisting that the territorial electoral commissions were idle and had not examined their appeals for days. Mr. Mukuchyan stated in response how hard the workers of the territorial electoral commissions worked day and night with a tense schedule.
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To our question, pursuantly, whether there were objective reasons to examine the appeals late, Mr. Mukuchyan replied: “All appeals have been examined within the deadlines. This is the subjective perception of the latters, as if those commissions have been idle which does not bear any relation to objective reality.” The next disputable question has been the compulsory demand to attach the copies of the certifications of the observers. According to the observers, it has drawn out a real nightmare.
Tigran Mukuchyan told on this occasion that in a lot of cases appeals are written and lodged in the name of hundreds of observers by a few persons. This is why they demand the copies of the certifications and consequently the volume of their work enlarges and complaints come forth. “It is necessary to represent a certification to specify the status of the given person. The Electoral Code has pinned that requirement and therefore it is mandatory to implement without discussion of whether it is good or bad.” Tigran Mukuchyan highlighted that if we speak of a legitimate state, we should therefore understand that one of the most important issues of the legitimate state is the fulfillment of the requirements of law. CEC or any given territorial commission does not arbitrarily nominate that requirement.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
