VICTORY OR DEFEAT: QUESTIONS REMAIN IN ARMENIA’S 2013 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
ianyan Magazine
Feb 19 2013
Posted by Liana Aghajanian on February 19, 2013 at 10:03 pm
It was meant to be predictable, perhaps even boring. But with a season
that included an attempted murder, a whole lot of flip flopping with
possible election postponements and a hunger strike, Armenia’s 2013
Presidential Elections have been anything but. With disappearing ink,
a hashtag takeover, fake Gallop polls, and two presidential candidates
declaring victory over each other, the political atmosphere in Armenia
is brewing with a potent mix of confusion as well as euphoria.
Five years after its previous election saw protests and demonstrations
which ended in the death of 10 people as police units violently
dispersed crowds and a 20 day state of emergency which included
media censorship , incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan of the ruling
Republican Party and Fresno-raised descendent of Armenian Genocide
survivors, Heritage leader Raffi Hovannisian have gone head to head
in a battle for the presidency in a country where apathy tends to
reign supreme when it comes to politics.
Sargsyan, a Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran, won the term according to
official Central Electoral Committee (CEC) Results, giving him a 59
percent victory over Hovannisian as well as five other candidates
which included Paruyr Hayrikyan, a Soviet-era dissident who was shot
and wounded during his bid for the presidency.
“Armenia chose the path towards a safe Armenia and I am happy and
proud of the fact that every resident of Armenia will be on that path,”
Sargysan was quoted as saying in Reuters.
While Russian president Vladimir Putin called to congratulate Sargsyan
and mainstream press concentrated on declaring Sargsyan’s victory
and moved on to the forever simmering Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
Iran’s nuclear arms race in relation to the South Caucasus country, the
Armenian social media landscape, using the hashtag “#armvote13,” was
overflowing. Reports of electoral fraud that included ballot stuffing
(with a circulated photo of a not-so-well concealed incident), vote
buying and bribing and disappearing ink, where the stamp placed in
the passports of voters could be immediately wiped away with a damp
cloth were coming in. The “#armvote13â~@³ hashtag also received a
brief disturbance from a pro-government Azerbaijani group called
IRELI public union, which, according to a hashtag analysis by Katy
Pearce, a communications scholar from the University of Washington
specializing in the South Caucasus.
Narine Esmaeili, an election observer in Ardashat who noticed election
irregularities from Sargsyan supporters was pushed against a wall and
held while 30 men surrounded the ballot box in a local polling place. ”
Notes of a Spurkahye posts a nice summary of various instances of
more instances, while iDitord, the web-based election irregularity
monitoring program reported 393 instances of electoral fraud. [iDitord
has covered the fraudulent practices in depth, urging the citizens
of Armenia to report any and all suspicious activity.
Violence against journalists were also reported, as noted by Anna
Barseghyan who wrote on the Internews-owned Media.am of an incident,
among others, where reporters who attempted to videotape election
day activities were threatened with having their throats cut.
This of course, was nothing new. Electoral fraud during Armenian
elections is a common, documented occurrence, with both the May 2012
parliamentary elections and the 2008 Armenian Presidential elections
marred by irregularities.
But beyond expected outcomes, another story was unfolding.
Hovannisian, it was reported, was gaining strong ground in several
districts in the country. In Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city,
preliminary results show he had 70 percent of the vote, while also
gaining strong leads in northern and southern Armenia as well.
As the polls closed, Hovanissian and his campaign called a press
conference in both Armenian and English, where he spoke of the Armenian
people having returned “not only to the international community,
but to our own nation,” of a new Armenia being born today.
He also touched upon foreign policy issues concerning Armenia. “As we
create our own democracy, the world must also recognize our rights,”
Hovannisian said in regards to sovereignity of Nagorno-Karabakh
and recognition fo the Armenian Genocide. Though he didn’t answer
any questions, but at a press conference hours later, Hovannnisian,
who, according to official results, received 37 percent of the vote,
declared the elections “the people’s victory,” and himself as “the
elected presidents of the Republic of Armenia.” Hovannisian is now
expecting Sargsyan to concede by 5 p.m. tomorrow, during which a
rally is meant to take place.
Just who exactly is the winner of Armenia’s 2013 presidential
elections? According to official CEC results, Sargsyan. But for answer
residents in Armenia and those observing as diasporans, bloggers and
activists the answer still remains somewhat unclear, if not delayed.
“Following a short period of protest rallies, that are sure to follow,
as I’m certain Raffi Hovannisian will just have to hold a couple of
insignificant rallies to calm down his supporters, we will enjoy a
prolonged period of political stability with no powerful opposition
force to challenge the dominance of Serzh Sarkissian’s Republican
party,” writes The Armenian Observer.
Unzipped sums up the elections with the same feeling, adding that
Hovannisian cannot produce the sheer numbers needed for an ‘Armenian’
spring.
“Unless people took to the streets and make Raffi fight for his
votes, it’s difficult to imagine any changes in election results,”
the blog writes.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
who acted as international observers characterized the elections as
“generally well-administered” and carried out with a “respect for
fundamental freedoms, including those of assembly of expression,”
according to a statement they released which also outlined that lack
of impartiality and misuse “blurred the distinction between activities
of the state” and those of the ruling Republican party.
At a press conference held by OSCE however, their statement was
challenged by a young political activist named Lena Nazaryan
who garnered much support among civic activists but saw observers
walk out of the hall as she began to address them. “Dear political
tourists,” Nazaryan said, “we have had enough of your efforts to
legitimize the fraudulent elections.” Nazaryan called polling precincts
“theatrical stages” and the elections as “one step forward and three
step backwards” and not inline with international standards or the
RA constitution.
In addition to criticism of international observers, another point
of contention is the Gallup exit polls conducted in the country,
which are said to be ‘fake,’ having nothing to do with the actual
U.S.-based polling company of the same name. These polls were widely
referenced in major media outlets reporting on the Armenian elections
and put Sargsyan at a major lead over Hovannisian.
In a show of solidarity, well-known opposition Azerbaijani activist
and dissident Emin Milli released a statement via his Facebook page
about perhaps the only thing Armenians and Azerbaijanis can agree on:
both their countries remain tinged with corruption.
“First we have to get rid of our corrupt and criminal governments and
leaders and only then we will start negotiating the peace agreement,”
Milli wrote. “We, the people will negotiate the peace, not them,
the criminals and the thieves!”
Armenia ranked 105 and Azerbaijan ranked 139 out of 176 countries in
Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Index, while neighboring
country Georgia came in at 51.
As the exact outcome of the election remains muddled with two
declarations of victories and future rallies in the coming days,
perhaps the only thing that remains certain is Armenia’s continuing
struggle to transition into a full blown democracy.
“What Armenians do know,” writes Security in the Caucasus and Beyond,
“is that there were violations, and, that in their society, there
are people who remain, as ever, above and beyond the law.”
http://www.ianyanmag.com/2013/02/19/victory-or-defeat-questions-remain-in-armenias-2013-presidential-elections/