Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email anca@anca.org
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
May 18, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ANCA WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL PRAISE FOR
FREE AND FAIR CONDUCT OF ARMENIAN ELECTIONS

WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
welcomes widespread international recognition that Armenia’s
recently concluded Parliamentary elections represented a marked
both an improvement over previous votes and yet another step in the
continued strengthening of Armenia’s democratic institutions.

"We appreciate the uniformly positive statements affirming the free
and fair conduct of Armenia’s Parliamentary elections," said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "This vote – as an expression
of the commitment to democratic self-government long shared by the
American and Armenian peoples – strengthens the resolve of
America’s leaders to stand by our fellow democracy – an island of
freedom and stability in a challenging and troubled region."

"These Armenian elections were an improvement over previous
elections and were conducted largely in accordance with
international standards," said Tone Tingsgaard, a leader of the
OSCE election monitoring team. Some 300 election monitors worked
under the umbrella of the International Election Observation
Mission (IEOM), a joint undertaking of the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament (EP). The
IEOM preliminary report, the OSCE said improvements include a
"dynamic" election campaign "with extensive media coverage," few
irregularities on election day and increased transparency in vote
counting.

Similarly, the European Union Presidency noted "with satisfaction
that the Parliamentary elections held in Armenia on 12 May were, on
the whole, conducted fairly, freely and largely in accordance with
the international commitments which Armenia had entered into. The
Presidency welcomes the fact that, compared to previous elections,
significant progress has been made."

In a separate statement, EU High Representative for Common Foreign
and Security Policy, Javier Solana, praised the Armenian people for
having "demonstrated greater political maturity through these
elections." He went on to state that he is "confident that Armenia
and the EU will continue to develop relations in a spirit of
partnership."

A May 14th statement issued by the U.S. Embassy congratulated "the
Armenian people on a more successful poll than previous elections,"
and went on to note that, "our judgment so far is that this
election was an improvement toward international standards."

The Armenian Parliament consists of 131 seats, 90 of which are
elected by proportional vote for parties and 41 are majoritarian
district votes. Some 1.3 million or 60% of Armenian voters
participated in elections, where 5 political parties met the 5%
vote threshold necessary to be represented in the 131 seat national
assembly, including the Republican Party (32.9%), Prosperous
Armenia Party (14.7%), Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun (12.8%), Rule of Law Party (6.9%) and Heritage Party
(5.8%). Presidential elections in Armenia are set to take place in
June of 2008.

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