ARMENIA: MEASURES TO PROMOTE FREE-AND-FAIR PRESIDENTIAL VOTE FACE SCRUTINY
Gayane Abrahamyan
EurasiaNet
Jan 29 2008
NY
With Armenia’s presidential election less than a month away,
attention is focusing on measures taken by the government to promote a
free-and-fair vote. Critics are quick to cite shortcomings in official
anti-fraud efforts, and some go so far as to accuse the government
of plotting to stuff ballot boxes. Officials are downplaying the
opposition criticism and accusations, with one calling them the
byproduct of an "ardent imagination."
International observers qualified Armenia’s May 2007 parliamentary
election as largely in keeping with international democratic norms,
though they stressed that many core problems existed. [For background
see the Armenia Vote: 2007 special feature]. Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian is widely considered the leading candidate to win the
February 19 election and succeed President Robert Kocharian, who
is constitutionally barred from seeking another term. Sarkisian’s
primary challenger is generally considered to be former president,
Levon Ter-Petrosian. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Beginning last October, parliament began working out a new election
code, but many of the recommendations by the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights observation mission were not incorporated into the
reform blueprint.
Of the changes made, some political activists cite the requirement to
seal voters’ passports to prevent multiple voting as the most important
new anti-fraud feature; repeat voting was a problem mentioned by the
OSCE observers in their final report on the May 2007 election. "This
is the only amendment to help fight against violations such as repeat
voting," commented opposition Heritage Party secretary Stepan Safarian.
An additional amendment allows voters to vote outside of the
constituency in which they were originally registered — if they
re-register seven days before the election. While some local observers
see this as a progressive idea that follows international standards,
they also worry that it will pave the way for abuse of administrative
resources.
"I am confident the people will register in a number of lists and
will vote several times," commented Varuzhan Hoktanian, deputy
chairperson of Transparency International Armenia. "Of course,
sealing passports will somehow divert the threat, but there will
certainly be countermeasures to neutralize those seals." In the past,
Hoktanian alleged, commission members – acting on prior agreements —
did not always check passports.
The Central Election Commission dismisses such allegations of laxity.
"We are led by the electoral code and it provides all the possibilities
to hold democratic elections. We can’t predict and prevent the way
people can falsify them. There should be a complaint with supporting
evidence filed to consider," CEC Secretary Abraham Bakhchagulyan
told EurasiaNet.
OSCE recommendations to review campaigning and campaign financing
regulations — and how they would apply to activities both before and
after the official campaign period — were not included in the new
law. Opposition candidate Artur Baghdasarian contends that such changes
were not discussed because they would not work to the government’s
advantage; ruling Republican Party parliamentarian Samvel Nikoyan,
meanwhile, said that it was necessary to first define the term of the
pre-campaign period before spending practices and other activities
could be regulated.
In addition, the OSCE suggested that parliament "urgently review" the
make-up of election commissions. In its final September 2007 report,
the OSCE noted that "persons appointed by the ruling parties and the
president have a priority right in being appointed to the top three
positions of the chairman, deputy chairman and the secretary."
Despite the OSCE’s recommendation, this provision in the electoral
code remained unchanged; election commission seats are largely
based on representation in parliament, meaning only two opposition
parties – the Heritage and Orinats Yerkir parties – are represented
on commissions. Citing aides to party leader Raffi Hovannisian,
ArmeniaLiberty on January 25 reported that the Heritage Party plans
to grant its seats in "hundreds of election commissions" to supporters
of Ter-Petrosian and Vazgen Manukian. Nonetheless, the large majority
of commission seats will remain in administration-friendly hands.
To prepare commission members for the election, the CEC has organized
three training seminars with support from IFES and the OSCE. Training
will begin on January 28 for some 15,000 precinct election commission
members.
Opposition members, contend that training for commission members
is less pressing than other needs. Some prefer to call attention to
allegations of administration initiatives to rig the vote. For example,
Baghdasarian’s campaign manager alleges that within the past few weeks
state funds have been allotted for the printing of some 500,000 new
passports for Armenians who no longer reside in the country. "They have
already listed the persons who are absent from Armenia – about 500,000
– to print new passports in their names to have someone else go and
vote with those passports," said Heghine Bisharian, who cited sources
within the police passport department as the basis for her claim.
Col. Alvina Zakarian, head of the police department in charge of voter
lists, rejected Bisharian’s accusation. The newly issued passports
are legitimate, he asserted, and are intended to accommodate new
voters. Some 4,000 Armenians reached voting age between January 10
and January 14, he said, and "many" others returned to Armenia after
last year’s elections and re-registered to vote, he said.
"I am ready to take the responsibility, if you show me just one false
passport," Zakarian said.
In response to this allegation, President Kocharian has stated that
the funds are intended for a new passport system that would include
biometric data in Armenian passports.
Meanwhile, voter rights group Election 2008 Legal Initiative,
a collective of some 50 Armenian NGOs funded by the international
development organization Counterpart International, reports that
employees at schools and state-funded institutions have called the
group’s hotline to report that their employers are pressuring them to
hand over their passports. Some were allegedly told that the passports
were needed to check data; others were refused an explanation.
People’s Party of Armenia Deputy Chairman Grigor Harutyunian, who
backs Ter-Petrosian’s candidacy, terms the alleged practice an abuse
of administrative resources. "The heads of state institutions and
schools are mostly Republican [Party of Armenia] or Prosperous Armenia
[Party] members. They demand the passports as employers and threaten
to fire people if they refuse to bring them in," Harutyunian alleged.
Republican Party of Armenian spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov strongly
denied the allegations, referring to the reports of passport collection
as "the results of the opposition’s ardent imagination."
"Why don’t they sue them?" Sharmazanov said, referring to employees
allegedly targeted by the requests. "No one has the right to take
anyone’s passport."
Lawyer Khachatur Ohanian, a member of the Election 2008 Legal
Initiative group, says that fear of reprisals often deters voters from
pursuing complaints. "[I]n many cases, we have registered voters and
have told them we are ready to defend them free of charge, but they
are afraid and don’t believe us."
CEC Secretary Bakhchagulian counters that such allegations merely
cater to the opposition’s interests. In the end, he says, election
observers will act as the final arbiters of these disputes. "We
are doing everything to have high-quality elections," he said. "The
observers will judge how well we have succeeded."
Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the ArmeniaNow.com
weekly in Yerevan.