ELECTIONS DO NOT CORRESPOND TO STANDARDS OF DEMOCRACY, HELSINKI CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY VANADZOR OFFICE HEAD FINDS

Noyan Tapan
May 23 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The National Assembly elections do
not correspond to the standards of democracy. Artur Sakunts, the
head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office gave such
an estimation at the May 23 meeting with journalists at the Pastark
club. In his words, the elections proceeded with violations of the
Electoral Code and decisions of the Central Electoral Commission
which had considerable influence on the results of the elections.

The organization implemented monitoring of the pre-electoral propaganda
campaign in the cities of Vayk, Sisian and Gyumri as well as monitoring
of the vote of the elections in the marzes of Lori and Tavush. In
A. Sakunts’ words, facts of all-embracing allocation of electoral
bribes, charity assistance and services, pre-electoral meetings and
prohibition on spreading of printed materials, pressures and threats
were fixed with the results of the monitoring of the pre-electoral
propaganda implemented from April 8 to May 10.

Uncorrespondence of data in the lists of electors, periodical
gatherings of voters at the polling stations which "were a result
of taking and directing citizens in an organized way to the polling
stations for vote by microbuses and buses" were observed at 36 polling
stations of the marzes of Lori and Tavush on the day of the vote.

The lawyer connects with the elections even the criminal actions
brought against editor-in-chief of the Zhamanak Yerevan newspaper Arman
Babajanian, former RA Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanian. They as
well as head of the "In Defence of Liberated Territories" initiative
Zhirayr Sefilian and Vardan Malkhasian, in A. Sakunts’ words, are
political prisoners.