Jerusalem Post
May 12 2007
Armenia chooses new parliament amid worries
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
YEREVAN, Armenia
Armenia voted for a new parliament Saturday in elections dominated by
concerns about economic issues in the poor and landlocked ex-Soviet
republic and by opposition fears that officials will falsify the
results.
All 131 seats in the National Assembly are to be filled – 90 to be
chosen according to proportions that parties get nationwide and 41 in
single-mandate contests. Preliminary results were expected Monday.
The last parliamentary election, in 2003, was assessed by
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers as
falling short of international democratic standards. But a
preliminary report from the OSCE’s elections-monitoring office on
this year’s campaign did not point to significant problems.
National media reports on the campaign have been "generally devoid of
negative reporting," the report said. The OSCE frequently criticizes
elections in post-Soviet countries for media reports that either
ignore opposition forces or portray them unfairly.