Officials, critics assess observers’ new report

“Unverified facts”

by Armen Hakobyan

Published: Saturday March 15, 2008

Yerevan - The third interim report regarding the February 19 presidential elections in Armenia was issued by the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM). Armenian officials and Levon Ter-Petrossian gave different evaluations of the report.

Officials have stressed that the report notes that the election was conducted "mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitents and standards." President Robert Kocharian's assistant Vigen Sargisian reiterated that particular passage on Public TVs Haylur program and said that in general the report was positive.

However, Arman Musinyan, who is Mr. Ter-Petrossian's campaign spokesperson told the Armenian Reporter that their reading of the report is quite contrary to that of Armenian officials.

"The International Election Observation Mission's report, which includes violations, concrete facts and evidence that proves that elections did not take place in Armenia, but rather a fabrication of elections. This third interim report was much more critical and more objective than the previous one. I presume that a lack of factual evidence was the reason for the weakness of the last report. This time the evidence is apparent. There are instances of violations, including ballot stuffing and the serious problems with the recount. In other words the entire specter of the violations is included this time," said Mr. Musinyan.

As to how all this will impact Armenia's internal political process, Mr. Musinian said, "In all honesty, we had placed all our faith in our own resources. But this simply proves that the international community clearly knows what kind of elections were conducted in Armenia. The Armenian authorities also know that it is no longer possible to fool the international community."

A statement issued by Armenia's Foreign Ministry reads: "The government of Armenia notes that some of the problems cited in this post-election interim report have already been at the center of attention by certain law enforcement bodies, and that appropriate steps are taken to respond, including to criminally charge some of those responsible for certain electoral irregularities.

"At the same time, Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that in spite of the government's repeated inquiries, the government has not been provided with the identifying numbers of 13 of the 17 precincts where, according to the report, the counting process was "bad" or "very bad", and therefore, without such information, the government is unable to conduct the appropriate investigation.

"The interim report also includes interpretative statements based on unverified data. Thus, the report expresses doubt about the high turnout in precincts 37/18, 37/29, 37/38 and 37/39. Prior to the issuance of the report, the authorities had explained that there are military posts in those precincts which naturally raises the numbers of those voting." In these circumstances, the number of actual voters can exceed the number of registered voters, meaning regular residents, in a precinct, the statement explained.

"The Armenian government will closely examine each problem, as well as inconsistency and error cited in the report, and will provide comprehensive information about each both to the Armenian public and to OSCE/ODIHR in order to assure that the final report is even more objective and complete," the Foreign Ministry concluded.
The final IEOM report is expected at the beginning of May.