“We are satisfied with the way our money was spent,” the Head of the EU mission in Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, said at a press conference on Monday, when asked to comment on the fact whether the EU funds allocated for efficient processing of the Armenian parliamentary elections were spent well. Panorama.am reports.
He noted that their money was spent on cameras and authentication devices that operated very well.
“From purely technical point of view we are very satisfied. Of course, there were some issues, in particular concerning the live steaming from video cameras, fingerprint devices. But we are now analysing all signals, all accounts and there was a discussion in the framework of the supervision body which states that the technology worked very well, better than in other countries and better than we expected,” Świtalski said, adding that the Armenian voters now know that with this technology they can have enough assurances that their vote is no longer stolen.
In the words of the head of the EU Mission in Armenia, there are aspects of the electoral process that should be addressed in the future. He noted that the EU is ready to work with the government and the state structures to address the shortcomings, which were revealed at the last elections.
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“Everyone admits that there are things that should not have happened. For us the past elections were not the end of the road and we are ready to continue our support. In what forms, how, we still do not know. I believe that the Armenian partners, in particular the government, is interested in continuing our cooperation,” the ambassador said.
Piotr Świtalski also noted that the Parliamentary elections showed a lot about the weaknesses of the political system and process, including the campaigning, however this is a domestic issue.
“I think that the Armenian society and the political class in particular, have a lot to think about the political culture, the shape of the political process and the political leadership,” Mr. Świtalski concluded.