For high level elections

FOR HIGH LEVEL ELECTIONS

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
June 6 2004

Consultation was held at the government of NKR with the
participation of the government members, government agencies, heads
of municipalities, chairmen of regional and town election committees.
The consultation was conducted by the prime minister of NKR Anoushavan
Danielian. The participants of the consultation listened to the report
of the chairman of the NKR Central Election Committee S. Davtian
on the preparation and holding of elections to municipalities. He
emphasized that the aim of holding a consultation together with
the NKR government is to organize the elections on a high level, in
correspondence with the law currently in force and the international
standards. Stressing the importance of fair and transparent elections,
S. Davtian said that they expect competent and unbiased work of
the persons involved in the organization of elections. According
to S. Davtian, of the 242 communities in 9 elections will not take
place because the term of office of the heads of communities and the
community councils is not over yet. For the same reason elections to
the heads of 42 communities and elections to community council in 10
communities will not take place either. There is one question referring
to the nomination of candidates that requires further clarification:
certain heads of communities and nominees still owe tax debts to the
tax department. It was considered adequate to turn to the National
Assembly for this question. The nomination of candidates will take
place from June 19 to June 24 and the registration of the candidates
by the regional and town election committees will take place from
June 24 to July 19. Touching upon one by one the articles of the law
currently in force the chairman of the Central Election Committee
presented the order of drawing up the votersâ^À^Ù registers and
correcting them at the local election committees. The NKR Police
and the National Security Service were charged with maintenance of
order at all the polling stations, as well as organization of the
participation of prisoners in the election. The Ministry of Education,
Culture and Sport will through the efforts of teachers organize
speeches for the voters emphasizing the importance of the elections
in accomplishment of statehood. A number of problems connected with
finance were clarified. In reference to the election campaign the order
of paid service of the mass media was covered. It was mentioned that
election campaign will be carried out on the means of the foundation
for the candidates maintaining equal conditions for them. S. Davtian
thanked the newspaper “Azat Artsakh” for conscientious coverage of the
meetings of the Central Election Committee. Once again emphasizing
the importance of the elections to the municipalities and summing
up the results of the government consultation NKR prime minister
Anoushavan Danielian drew the attention of the participants to the
political aspect of the elections. He stressed that the elections are
in the center of attention of the NKR president and everything must
be done for the sake of high level of organization. “These elections
are to be different from the previous ones in transparency and high
level of organization. The economic sphere of the country is getting
improved gradually. The legislative sphere is formed. Therefore we
have all the possibilities to hold top-level transparent elections,”
said Anoushavan Danielian.

LAURA GRIGORIAN