During the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, head of the PACE observation mission Aleksander Pociej presented the results of the observations conducted at the snap parliamentary elections that took place in Armenia on December 9th. He emphasized that, after the Velvet Revolution, there have been several prerequisites set for holding democratic elections, and announced, “The snap parliamentary elections in Armenia took place in a calm and peaceful environment under the attention of observers.”
But at the same time, referring to the relatively low percentage of voters who participated, he said, “There were many cases where people were scared to go vote due to hatred and intolerance on social media. Different people were threatened, and there was an atmosphere of hatred. Therefore, people, afraid of the aggression they were shown, did not wish to go vote.”
Aleksander Pociej noted that many violations that took place during previous elections did not take place during the snap elections. Despite the fact that there was only a short period of preparation before the elections, they were well-organized. All candidates were able to carry out their campaigns in an atmosphere that allowed them to speak and to voice their opinions freely.
Tatev Harutyunyan
