MEETING AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Yerkir.am
February 02, 2007
Representatives of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights met with Hrayr Karapetian, the leader of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation faction in the parliament, and Gegham
Manukian, the secretary of the faction.
The amended Electoral Code and issues related to the upcoming
parliamentary elections were discussed at the meeting.
Karapetian presented the amendments to the Electoral Code noting that
some positive changes were made to the Electoral Code. Among such
positive changes was introduction of voting envelops (the proposal
was made by ARF) which will make the process of summarization of
results more controllable. Karapetian also pointed out the stricter
punishment for election fraud and violations in the Criminal Code.
Gegham Manukian commented on the pre-electoral campaign noting that it
is very important to ensure that all parties have equal access to TV to
present their positions. He stated it is an important accomplishment
that all TV companies will have to publicize the prices and schedules
for political advertising ten days prior to the elections.
OSCE ODIHR experts were interested in incidents of not giving air
time to opposition forces, and the efficiency of trainings organized
by the Central Electoral Commission for precinct commission members.
Commenting on the last question Karapetian noted that ARF has branches
in all regions of Armenia which makes it possible to have the party’s
representatives in all precinct commissions. As to the trainings,
Karapetian noted that they were organized based on the old Electoral
Code which implies that the parties will have to present the amended
Electoral Code to its representatives in the commissions.
Commenting on instances of not giving air time to opposition forces
Manukian noted that even though chairman of Rule of Law Country
Party Artur Baghdasarian had stated in a recent interview that Yerkir
Media was the only TV company that agreed to give paid air time to
him after long negotiations, this is not true.
The Rule of Law Country Party was given paid air time three times, and
the co-chairmen of the party have participated in several political
programs aired on Yerkir Media. The TV company has aired National
Unity’s chairman Artashes Geghamian’s speech at the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe.
At the end of the meeting the head of ARF’s parliamentary faction
expressed his hope that the election observation mission will be larger
during the upcoming elections which will allow the observers to make
their conclusions based on the facts witnessed by the observers and
not based on the statements made by opposition forces.