"CONTINUED PROGRESS IS KEY TO ENSURING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE"
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01 February, 2008
Strasbourg, 31.01.2008 – A pre-electoral mission of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe has just completed a visit to Yerevan
to assess the political climate and preparations for the forthcoming
Presidential election in Armenia. Its main task was to assess progress
in the implementation of the electoral framework, as continued progress
in the manner in which the election is conducted will be essential
to ensure public confidence in the electoral process in this country.
Continued progress is key to ensuring public confidence in democratic
election, says PACE delegation
The delegation noted that the parliamentary elections in 2007 had
shown progress over previous elections and expressed its hope that this
progress would continue during the forthcoming Presidential election on
19 February 2008. It was therefore heartened by the clearly expressed
political will of the authorities to address previous shortcomings and
to hold fully democratic elections in line with Armenia’s commitments
to the Council of Europe. In this respect, the delegation welcomes
the improvements in the legal framework for these elections, which
address a number of recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly.
However, it would also like to stress that the democratic conduct of
the elections will squarely depend on the electoral framework being
fully implemented, both according to the letter and spirit of the law.
Genuinely democratic elections, and the legitimacy of their outcome
in the eyes of the people, depend on a high level of public confidence
in the electoral process. In that respect, the delegation is concerned
with the apparent lack of trust in the electoral process, including in
the impartiality of the legal complaints and appeals process, expressed
by a number of interlocutors. It therefore strongly recommends that the
authorities take all necessary measures to ensure public confidence
in the electoral process, especially with regard to the secrecy of
the vote and the transparency of the counting and tabulation processes.
While the setup of the voting booths has been changed to impede
vote-buying and multiple voting, there is some concern that this may
lead to voters inadvertently showing how they voted, especially if
large numbers of people are present in the polling stations. The
delegation saw a sample voting booth and was convinced that they
are designed according to international standards. However, it calls
upon the Central Election Commission (CEC) to take all precautions
to ensure the secrecy of the vote on election day. Moreover, while
the CEC has made laudable efforts to increase the transparency of the
tabulation process, these measures did not work fully satisfactorily
during the previous parliamentary elections. The delegation hopes that
the technical problems encountered at that time have been overcome
and recommends that the CEC sets a minimum timeframe during which
the results protocols have to be publicly posted at polling stations.
The Election Code ensures a balanced composition of all election
commissions, but it was noted that this balance was not reflected in
the composition of the leadership troikas of the Territorial Election
Commissions. The delegation hopes that this imbalance will not be
repeated at the level of the Precinct Election Commissions.
Democratic elections demand a level playing field between all
candidates during, but not limited to, the legal campaign period. The
delegation therefore regrets the clearly unbalanced media coverage
on most broadcast media, including public television, before the
official campaign period, as was reported by several monitoring
organisations, including by the Election Observation Mission of the
OSCE/ODIHR, whose findings – published in its first interim report –
the delegation fully supports.
The delegation heard several complaints that the current Prime
Minister, who is a Presidential candidate, would have unfair campaign
advantages as a result of his decision to maintain his position
as Prime Minister during the campaign period. While recognising the
legality of the current Prime Minister continuing his functions despite
being a candidate, it adds to the responsibility of the government to
avoid any perception that administrative resources are abused in favour
of, or against, any particular candidate. The delegation welcomes
the fact that, until now, the election campaign has taken place in
an open and unimpeded climate, but notes reports by some candidates
of their difficulties in obtaining campaign offices in some regions.
The delegation is confident that the authorities will address the
concerns of the delegation and will continue its efforts to organise
a fully democratic Presidential election that will have the full
confidence of the Armenian people.
The delegation would like to thank the authorities for their
co-operation and assistance during this visit.
The Parliamentary Assembly will return to Armenia to observe the
Presidential election with a 30-member delegation.