THE SOCIETY SHOULD ACTIVELY MONITOR THE ELECTIONS PROCESS

Yerkir, Armenia
Oct 20 2006

Q: What should be done to ensure fair elections in Armenia? What can
ARF do in this direction?

A: Necessary environment on the legislative, executive, political and
public levels should be ensured to have fair elections. These levels
are all interconnected. In order to have fair elections we first
of all need clearcut legal mechanisms. The law should minimize the
possibility for election fraud and set strict punishment for any such
incidents. It was due to ARF’s efforts that an amendment was made to
the Electoral Code to increase the number of proportional seats. ARF
proposed to have 100% proportional elections; however, a consensus
was reached to have a proportional/majoritarian ratio of 70/30.

This is a positive change taking into consideration that election
fraud usually occurs in majoritarian precincts. National Assembly
deputies elected under the majoritarian vote form the quantity rather
than quality in the National Assembly. Once the number of deputies
elected on party lists is increased the elections and their results
will become political.

Political parties should be the ones to implement the political
processes and not individuals who strive for the deputy’s mandate
for some personal interests.

Legislative regulation is necessary but not adequate for ensuring
fair elections. Good laws can be applied in very bad ways by different
authorities, the society or the same political forces.

The majority of political parties participating in the elections
initially support free, fair and transparent elections and pledge
to take joint efforts against election fraud. However, the political
forces are not honest and make these public statements for populist
reasons.

ARF supports such reform of the Electoral Code that would on the one
hand eliminate the possibility for election fraud while on the other
hand contributing to the oversight of enforcement of the law.

The punishments stipulated in the Electoral code for election fraud
should be made stricter first of all for any instances of attempts to
influence the election processes on the part of public officials. The
authorities are formed by the people’s vote, and people should be
interested in ensuring that their vote is note rigged.

The society should actively monitor the elections processes and
cooperate with forces that are also interested in having fair
elections. It is ARF’s and other parties’ mission to instill in the
society the political culture of elections.