ARMENIAN PARTY PREPARES COMPLAINT ABOUT MAY 12 POLLS
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 16, 2007 Wednesday
Armenia’s opposition party Orinar Erkir (The Country of Law) is
preparing a complaint to the Constitutional Court about violations
in the May 12 parliamentary elections but will not give up seats in
the new parliament.
The leader of this centre-right radical opposition party, former
parliament speaker Artur Bagdasaryan said the complaint concerned
the results of voting at 400 polling stations where the party’s
performance was "deliberately understated".
In his words, there was "mass bribery of voters" on the day of voting.
Bagdasaryan urged all political forces to provide his party with
evidence of falsifications and violations during the elections.
"If necessary, we will go to the European Court," he warned.
Bagdasaryan, 39, who is going to run for presidency in 2008, admitted
some positive changes in the electoral process. He said law enforcement
agencies had not put pressure on candidates in the majoritarian
constituencies, no theft of ballot boxes had been reported, and no
mass power failures had occurred.
According to the politician, violations occurred not at the polling
stations but outside them.
The party will have a faction in the parliament and 9 of 131 seats.
"Boycott is not the best method of political struggle," Bagdasaryan
said.
He confirmed that the goal of his party is gradual European integration
and European Union membership.
Earlier, the head of the opposition People’s party of Armenia, Stepan
Demirchyan, claimed that the parliamentary elections in Armenia could
not be regarded as free and fair and the new parliament had not been
formed through a free expression of the will of the people.
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.