ANOTHER OPPOSITION PARTY TO APPEAL ELECTION RESULTS
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 17 2007
Aram Karapetian, a radical opposition leader, said on Thursday that
his Nor Zhamanakner (New Times) will also ask Armenia’s Constitutional
Court to annul the official results of the parliamentary elections.
According to the preliminary figures released by the Central Election
Commission, Nor Zhamanakner won about 3.5 percent of the vote, failing
to pass the 5 percent threshold for winning parliament seats under
the proportional representation system.
Karapetian said that his party got many more votes, alleging that
they were deliberately miscounted by government-controlled election
commissions across the country. "The authorities have given our votes
to other pro-government parties," he told a news conference. Nor
Zhamanakner will therefore demand a nationwide recount of ballots in
its appeal to the Constitutional Court, he added.
The pro-Russian oppositionist showed journalists what appeared to be
evidence of a huge discrepancy between official results registered
in a precinct in Charentsavan, a small town in central Armenia.
According to the vote protocol released by the precinct commission,
Nor Zhamanakner polled 111 votes there. However, the CEC data showed
it getting only ten votes.
Also planning to appeal the election results in the court are two
other opposition parties that will be represented in the newly elected
National Assembly. One of them, Orinats Yerkir, is also seeking a
vote recount.
Votes are currently being recounted only in some of the country’s
41 single-mandate districts. In one of them, covering much of the
Aragatsotn province, the recount has found that a large number of
ballots marked for opposition parties, including Nor Zhamanakner,
were actually added to the vote tallies of the governing Republican
Party (HHK) and other pro-government contenders.
Karapetian repeated his and other radical oppositionists’ allegations
that the Armenian authorities also rigged the elections by issuing
fake passports in the name of more than 400,000 voters absent from
the country. He said those passports were given to other citizens who
were bribed to vote for the HHK and the pro-presidential Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK).
The Armenia authorities have shrugged off the allegations, insisting
that the elections were free and fair. International observers have
similarly concluded that they largely met democratic standards.
In a written statement, the HHK said on Thursday that the conduct
of the May 12 vote testified to the "irreversibility of democratic
processes" in the country. The statement also thanked those Armenians
who voted for the HHK.