OSCE/ODIHR NOT TO OBSERVE THE ELECTIONS IN YEREVAN
Lena Badeyan
"Radiolur"
15.04.2009 17:05
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will not
observe the forthcoming elections to the Yerevan City Council because
of the simple reason that it has not received any invitation either
from the Central Electoral Commission or the Government.
"The OSCE/ODIHR usually observes the general elections, and this
practice is applied not only in Armenia, but also all over the
world. As a rule, the local self-government elections are observed
by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of
Europe," CEC Press Secretary Tatev Ohanyan said.
Head of Public Relations of the Armenian National Congress Vladimir
Karapetyan disagrees with the statement, saying that the OSCE is
interested in observing the elections. "Taking into consideration that
the opposition will run in the elections with a united candidate the
OSCE/ODIHR has expressed the wish to carry out observation. Besides,
the OSCE/ODIHR has the practice of observing local elections. They
did it in Moldova and Albania in 2007. Therefore, those explanations
are false," he said.
According to Vladimir Karapetyan, the authorities had to be interested
in inviting as many observers as possible, including representatives
of the OSCE/ODIHR
As of today, two local organizations have registered at the Central
Electora l Commission to carry out observation at the forthcoming
elections. As for international observers, the Government has
sent out an invitation to the CoE Congress of Local and Regional
Authorities. The Central Electoral Commission has invited the
Ambassadors of the OSCE participating states, the foreign Ambassadors
accredited in the Republic of Armenia, the Head of the OSCE Office
in Yerevan, the Special Representative of the CoE Secretary General
to Armenia, as well as the Chairman of the NKR Central Electoral
Commission to observe the elections to the Yerevan City Council.