PAP WON THE REACE OF DISTRIBUTING ELECTION BRIBES

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[06:33 pm] 23 May, 2007

36 observers of the Vanadzor office of Helsinki Civil Assembly
observed the election campaign and the May 12 voting in Armenian
towns and villages.

"The parliamentary election does not comply with the standards
of democracy. There were violations of the Electoral Code and
decisions of the CEC which affected the conduct and the outcome of
the election. Besides, the Republican Party used its administrative
resources, and the Prosperous Armenia – financial ones," said Arthur
Sakunts, the head of the Vanadzor office of Helsinki Civil Assembly.

Arthur Sakunts believes that the arrest of Arman Babajany, the editor
of the Time Yerevan, Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan, the
members of the Civil Initiative for Defense of Liberated Territories,
and Alexander Arzumanyan, the representative of the Civil Disobedience
Movement, are related to the election and have a political context.

"He thinks it is at least amazing that none of the law enforcers, who
charged Alexander Arzumanyan with money laundering, wonders where the
money of election bribes came from and tries to reveal the source,"
Arthur Sakunts said.

In speaking about Lori he said the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, the Republican
Party, the Prosperous Armenia Party and the United Labor Party set
out in a race of distributing electoral bribes, and "after 7 o’clock
the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing."

The Vanadzor office of Helsinki Civil Assembly will extend the facts
to all international observation missions. For the time being only
the Impeachment Alliance has responded.

The government agencies are responsible for the non-democratic
elections, however, the Vanadzor office of Helsinki Civil Assembly
noticed that if civil society institutions, observation missions,
proxies, others, would work more effectively, a number of violations
and fraud would be possible to prevent. By the way, the Vanadzor
office had accredited 54 observers, but only 36 observed the election.

According to Arthur Sakunts, the others were afraid.