Election in Armenia was organized well; irregularities recorded, many ODIHR proposals unimplemented - mission
YEREVAN. June 8 (Interfax) - Janez Lenarcic, the head of the mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), has given a generally positive assessment to the June 7 parliamentary election in Armenia.
"Our monitors have been in Armenia since late April. We found various problems, but voters were given full opportunity of real choice. The electoral process was organized professionally, the campaigning was active and sometimes polarized," Lenarcic told a press conference on Monday.
The legislation in effect in the country ensured a democratic election, he said.
"Positive changes took place in the country after the election in Armenia in 2021, but many proposals of the ODIHR and the Venice Commission have not been implemented yet. Generally, the election was organized well. The work of the Central Elections Commission and territorial elections commissions was transparent and unbiased," Lenarcic said.
The election campaigning was polarized and involved confrontational and provocative statements, "but we have not registered systemic use of administrative resources," he said.
"We have received a number of reliable reports on pressure on voters and public servants from the ruling party to participate in campaigning events. We have received reports of the cultivation of an atmosphere of fear among the opposition. These reports concerned presumed terror against them, investigations and arrest. In some cases, this affected voters' readiness to participate in opposition actions," he said.
Concerns about a connection between politics and finance has been noted, Lenarcic said.
"In this regard, flaws in the regulation by supervisory agencies remain. Besides, the media have mainly spread mutual accusations, substantive discourse was limited, the Public Broadcaster mainly demonstrated a biased approach to coverage in favor of the ruling party, which contradicts its mission," he said.
Nathalie Loiseau, the head of the European Parliament Election Observation Mission in Armenia, said the voting process had been organized well and had gone smoothly.
Farah Karimi, special coordinator of the OSCE observation mission, called on the Armenian authorities "to continue working to strengthen societal confidence in democratic institutions.
Karimi also spoke about situations where there was pressure on public sector workers "to participate in events organized by the ruling party." "Insufficient control and regulation of financial resources limited the transparency of public control," she said.
Karimi did not call the Armenian election free and fair. "We as international monitors can say that we have stated what we have seen, and everything is based on facts. We compare our observations to the international standards, which the country has assumed," Karimi told a press conference on Monday.
"Only the people of the country can say if the election was free and fair," and it is up to the people of Armenia to make the final decision, she said. "The use by us of the words [free and fair election] cannot reflect what we have seen," Karimi said.
According to updated tentative data from the Armenian Central Elections Commission, Pashinyan's Civil Control party received 49.8% of the votes in the June 7 parliamentary election.
The Strong Armenia party, led by the head of the state company Tashir Samvel Karapetyan, which received 23.3%, and the Armenia bloc, led by Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharyan (9.9%) will also be represented in the new parliament.
