ELECTION PREPARATIONS CONTINUE ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE AND ARE PROCEEDING IN AN ORDERLY MANNER: OSCE/ODIHR REPORT
Arminfo News Agency
2007-05-08 17:26:00
Election preparations continue according to schedule and are
proceeding in an orderly manner, says OSCE/ODIHR interim report Apr
18-May 2. Most Territorial Election Commissions (TECs) are working
effectively, and are open in their dealings with OSCE/ODIHR EOM
long-term observers. OSCE/ODIHR EOM observers noted that influence
of local self-government over the work of TEC 17 (Artashat) and TEC
39 (Vayots Dzor) appears to breach the provisions for independence
stated in Article 32.1 of the Election Code.
The reports gives special attention to the incident over recorded
conversation between Orinats Yerkir party leader Artur Bagdasaryan
and a British embassy official: "The Russian-language newspaper Golos
Armenii on 21 and 26 April published two editorials that drew upon an
allegedly clandestinely recorded conversation between Orinats Yerkir
party chairman Artur Bagdasaryan and a British embassy official.
Golos Armenii stated that a recording of the conversation, of unknown
origin, had been delivered to its office anonymously. The newspaper
contended that the published excerpts revealed that Mr. Bagdasaryan
was seeking a negative assessment of the parliamentary elections by
the international community. The matter has since become known as the
"Marco Polo affair" after the Yerevan restaurant where the meeting
took place.
At this writing it is not clear whether an investigation has been
initiated into how the recording was made, and by whom. The OSCE/ODIHR
EOM requested a meeting on the matter with the National Security
Service (NSS), but this was declined with the explanation that
"this case was not initiated by the state, and therefore we have no
comments on it at this stage". In an address to students at Yerevan
State University on 27 April, extensively reported in the media,
President Kocharyan indicated that in response to the publication
of the newspaper articles, he had immediately ordered "my security
service" (presumably the NSS) to contact Golos Armenii’s editorial
office and determine the circumstances of the recording. Mr. Kocharyan
also expressed his opinion that the articles portrayed matters
truthfully and that Mr. Bagdasaryan had committed an act of treason.
The British Embassy condemned the way in which the conversation was
recorded and presented, and confirmed its commitment to promoting
effective democratic institutions and processes in Armenia. Orinats
Yerkir stated that Artur Bagdasaryan underlines the importance of
elections being conducted according to international standards in
all his conversations, public and private."
Concerning Vartan Malkhazyan’s detention, the report says:
"A court of first instance on 5 April extended the pre-trial
detention of Vartan Malkhazyan, a majoritarian candidate in TEC 14
(Ashtarak). The Election Code includes provisions allowing a person
in pre-trial detention to be nominated and registered as a candidate
(as in Mr. Malkhazyan’s case), and that a candidate for election to
the National Assembly may be detained or brought to court only with
6 the Central Election Commission’s (CEC’s) consent. Both the CEC
and a court official confirmed to the OSCE/ODIHR EOM that the CEC was
neither consulted nor informed about Mr. Malkhazyan`s detention being
extended. At present a challenge on the basis of the Election Code
to the legality of the extension is pending in the Court of Appeal,
and a related complaint was made to the CEC."
The report continues: The OSCE/ODIHR EOM is aware of widely
circulating anecdotes and apparently speculative comments about
activities that members of the public characterize as preparation
for election fraud. One of the most frequent is the allegation of
"passport collection" – representatives of political parties either
taking down passport details, or collecting copies of passports or
actual passports. Whether the allegations have any basis in fact
has proved unverifiable, but their circulation could be taken as an
illustration of mistrust and cynicism among part of the electorate.
There are no provisions in the Election Code regarding gender
representation in the election administration. Two out of the nine CEC
members are women (Interim Report No.1 stated that three 10 women were
in the CEC, but the woman listed by the CEC as the member representing
the judiciary had in fact been replaced by a man in February 2007).
In the TECs the representation of women in the membership is even
lower – 15 per cent; 11 of the 41 TECs have no female members at
all. Only three TECs have a female chair, and in three TECs women
serve as deputy chairs.
Along with wide poster placement activity, the commercial billboard
space in the center of Yerevan is dominated by campaign posters of
the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia, and to a lesser extent
20 the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutiun. The
OSCE/ODIHR EOM received copies of four letters sent by the Heritage
party to three advertising agencies in March and April 2007 asking for
billboard space, all of which got a negative response. The OSCE/ODIHR
EOM attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to arrange meetings with some
of the agencies and clarify rules for commercial poster authorization
and placement.
Concerning TV coverage of the electoral campaign, the report says: "A
number of media outlets appeared to cover a broader range of political
23 subjects, and thus to comply with legal provisions requiring fair
and equal conditions. However, the monitored television channels
devoted the highest portion of their politically-related information
in newscasts to three governmental and pro-presidential parties. The
substantial attention in the media (particularly television) to
government activities included a strong focus on Prime Minister
Serge Sargsyan. The way in which Mr. Sargsyan’s public appearances
around the country were presented by television reports, not clearly
distinguishing his roles as prime minister and as leader of the
Republican Party, would appear to reflect a broader issue that legal
provisions concerning political campaigning by 24 officials or use
of state resources for campaigning are difficult to apply. In the
news programmes of all four nationwide TV channels (public TV H1,
and the private channels H2, Armenia TV and ALM TV) the government
was given the highest share of the monitored political content (H2
gave 31 percent of almost exclusively positive and neutral coverage,
for example). All channels have so far presented the government in
overwhelmingly positive or neutral tones. Apart from coverage of the
authorities, the monitored TV channels dedicated the largest part of
their political party-related newscast information to the Republican
Party (in Armenia TV and ALM TV), to ARF Dashnaktsutiun (in Yerkir
Media) and to Prosperous Armenia (in H2, Shant TV and Kentron TV);
negative coverage of these parties was almost completely absent."