SMALL COUNTRIES SOMETIMES SHOW BIG RESULTS

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
22 June 05

On the next day of the election, on June 20th, at 9.30 the members of
the US monitoring mission gave a press conference. The head of the
mission J. Hooper presented the report on the polls. The observers
stated that the election to the NKR National Assembly was free and
transparent. J. Hooper mentioned that this was enabled by the changed
to the Electoral Code, allowing the political forces to take part in
the election, which, they think, corresponded to the international
standards. These changes altered the course of the election campaign.
The monitoring mission thanked the Central Election Committee forits
commitment. In the report it was mentioned that the observers did not
detect serious irregularities in the campaign. During the campaign the
voters could get acquainted with the election programme of the
candidates, and the candidates in their turn could extend their
political standpoint to people. This is an important step for NKR on
the way leading to democracy, says the report. Another fact pointed
out in the report was that only the commissioned officers of the
Defense Army could take part in the election under the majority and
proportional representation systems. According to the American
observers, this is a progressive step which could not be overlooked by
them. During the electionthe monitoring mission visited 22 electoral
districts and did not report any irregularities. In all the regions,
according to the observers, the electoral districts were set up on the
technical and not the political basis, but there were places where
this system could be strengthened. The observers believe that
transparent elections will have a positive effect on Nagorno Karabakh
in many aspects. Small countries may sometimes show big results, said
Paul Williams. He thinks that the people of Karabakh aspire to a
higher level of democracy. According to the observers, it is important
to have a more effective self-government system from the political and
legal points of view. They believe that the results of the
parliamentary election will have a positive impact on the Minsk Group
process.

AA.
22-06-2005