STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN TOM H. CASEY HOLDS STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING
Congressional Quarterly
May 14, 2007 Monday
(CORRECTED COPY: FILLS IN TOP)
STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING
MAY 14, 2007
SPEAKER: STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN TOM H. CASEY
CASEY: OK. Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Monday.
I don’t have anything to start you out with, so go right to your
questions.
QUESTION: All of my questions are too sensitive to ask at an open
briefing.
CASEY: Oh, OK.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, maybe we can have a closed briefing for you.
QUESTION: Anything on the elections in Armenia?
CASEY: Anything on the elections in Armenia? Well, I’ve got a little
bit on that, I think.
Basically, we do congratulate the Armenian people on their
parliamentary elections, and share with the international observers
who are present the view that the election infrastructure has been
greatly improved and that this is a step in the right direction toward
meeting international standards.
We do hope, however, that the government of Armenia will aggressively
investigate allegations that are there of electoral wrongdoing and
prosecute people in accordance with Armenian law.
So all in all, I think this is an improvement over past elections,
though certainly if you look at what the observers said, it did not
fully meet international standards.
QUESTION: So you essentially disagree with European Union statement:
"On the whole meeting of standards…"
CASEY: Well, we — again, I’d note that the comments that have been
made by the various observers that this was an improvement, just not
— if you look at what the OSCE observers have said, there’s still
some ways to go before you would have an election that fully meets
all international standards.