OSCE KICKS OFF ARMENIA VOTE MONITORING
By Ruzanna Khachatrian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Jan 10 2008
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe officially
launched on Thursday the monitoring of Armenia’s February 19
presidential election which will be crucial for the international
legitimacy of its outcome.
As always, the observation mission deployed by the OSCE’s Warsaw-based
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will
closely watch the pre-election campaign, voting and counting of
ballots to assess the election’s conformity with democratic standards.
"We will conduct the observation according to the OSCE/ODIHR standard
methodology," Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, head of the mission, told a news
conference in Yerevan. "We all come to this country with an open
mind and we all hope that after the election we will be able to state
further progress towards meeting OSCE standards," he said.
According to Ahrens, the mission is beginning its work with eleven
core staff who will be joined "very soon" by 28 long-term observers
to be deployed across Armenia. The ODIHR also plans to deploy some
250 short-term observers on election day, the German diplomat said.
In addition, the vote is expected to be monitored by several dozen
members of the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE and the Council
of Europe as well as the European Parliament, he added.
The previous Armenian elections were monitored by a similar number of
mainly Western observers who often reported serious irregularities,
giving weight to allegations of vote rigging made by the Armenian
opposition. The most recent, parliamentary elections held in Armenia
last May were different in that regard, though, with the OSCE/ODIHR
describing them as largely democratic.
Officials from the United States and the European Union have expressed
hope that the upcoming presidential ballot will judged to be even
less flawed. The authorities in Yerevan have assured them that they
will do their best to ensure its freedom and fairness.
Opposition leaders dismiss such assurances, however.
Ahrens he arrived in Armenia earlier this week and has already
met with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and the chairman of the
Central Election Commission, Garegin Azarian. He declined to comment on
allegations of unfair play that are already being voiced by opposition
presidential candidates/
In particular, opposition candidates, notably former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, and their allies complain about what they see as an
extremely biased coverage of their activities by the country’s main
broadcasters loyal to the government.
Terry Davis, the Council of Europe secretary general, echoed those
complaints as he received the election favorite, Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian in Strasbourg last November. "I think the situation,
as it is analyzed today with the media in Armenia, does not meet the
standards of the Council of Europe to a large extent," Davis told
RFE/RL afterwards.
Ivan Godarsky, a spokesman for the OSCE mission, said the observers
will look into the Armenian media’s coverage of the election campaign
as part of their work. "We will do a standard media monitoring
operation to assess qualitative and quantitative sides of the media
performance," he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
