ARMENIAN PARTY SAYS ELECTIONS NOT FREE AND FAIR

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 14, 2007 Monday 10:42 AM EST

Parliamentary elections in Armenia on Saturday cannot be regarded as
free and fair and the new parliament was not formed through a free
expression of the will of the people, the head of the opposition
People’s party of Armenia, Stepan Demirchyan. Said on Monday.

According to preliminary results, this centre-left party failed to pass
the 5-percent barrier and was not elected to the National Assembly.

The party, however, admitted its own mistakes and said they would be
studied most thoroughly.

Demirchyan believes, for example, that the opposition should have
pooled its ranks before the elections.

Meanwhile, the European Union said the elections in Armenia were on the
whole fair and free and consistent with the country’ s international
commitments.

Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan, who is also the head of the
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), said earlier his "deepest wish"
is that the people and numerous international observers recognise
the current parliamentary elections as the best in the history of
independent Armenia.

Sarkisyan said the elections were held in strict compliance with
democratic standards.

The prime minister believes that the opposition in Armenia "is quite
mature and will not resort to law offences".

At the same time, he said "the opposition forces are free to hold"
rallies.

Responding to the opposition’s claims that the results of the elections
would be falsified, the prime minister said, "My party would also
make such statements if it received a small number of votes in the
elections."

He believes his party, which is considered to be a hopeful, has
"rather high" chances of success.

President Robert Kocharyan said he had cast his ballot for "the future
of Armenia, for continued economic and social reforms".

The president declined to say for whom he had voted but expressed
confidence that "everything will be fine" especially since the election
had been "calm".

According to Kocharyan, "What is important is that the country should
go back to normal businesslike life after the elections".

"Despite equal opportunities for all, the party that will get the
majority in the parliament will have a better start-up position in
the presidential election next year," he said.

Following the constitutional reform, if the president has no strong
support in the parliament he will hardly be able to become an effective
head of state but will become "a figure head".

Kocharyan said he would like a constructive opposition – "political
parties of Armenia, not representative offices of foreign forces" —
to be elected to the parliament.