ARMENIA BACKS OSCE MONITORING CURBS AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
Emil Danielyan

EurasiaNet, NY
Nov 1 2007

With only four months to go before Armenia’s next presidential
election, Yerevan has endorsed controversial Russian proposals that
would seriously restrict the work of Western election observers acting
under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe.

Leading Armenian opposition parties portray the move as a sign that
the administration of outgoing President Robert Kocharian is not
intent on ensuring the freedom and fairness of the vote, scheduled for
early 2008. Significantly, representatives of Kocharian’s three-party
governing coalition have also spoken out against the proposed curbs,
raising more questions about the Armenian leadership’s motives.

The Russian proposals were submitted to the OSCE secretariat in Vienna
on September 18 and are expected to be discussed by the foreign
ministers of the organization’s 56 member states at a meeting in
Madrid on November 29-30. In particular, they would slash to 50 the
maximum number of observers which the OSCE’s election-monitoring
arm, the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (ODIHR), can deploy in any member nation. Under the proposals,
ODIHR observers would be allowed to assess the conduct of elections
only after the publication of their official results. What is more,
the OSCE’s governing Permanent Council, made up of representatives
of all member governments, would be involved in the drawing up of
those assessments.

The initiative is widely linked with Russia’s own December 2
parliamentary elections, a vote which President Vladimir Putin and
his allies hope to win by a landslide. The Kremlin makes no secret
of its displeasure with ODIHR monitors’ criticism of the previous
Russian parliamentary elections held in 2003. Moscow’s OSCE envoy,
Alexei Borodavkin, accused the monitors last week of bias against
Russia and other, Moscow-friendly former Soviet republics, the Interfax
news agency reported.

Five of these countries — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — endorsed the Russian proposals.

Elections held in these ex-Soviet states have likewise been judged
deeply flawed by Western observers representing the OSCE and other
international organizations.

Explaining Yerevan’s position last week, a spokesman for the Armenian
Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Karapetian, stopped short of openly accusing
the OSCE of bias. But he said that the organization needs to undergo
"reforms" that would make it "more representative, transparent and
equal for everyone." However, Armenian opposition leaders dismissed
the explanation and claimed that the authorities are disinterested
in the proper conduct of the approaching presidential election.

"Their behavior proves the fact that they are not prepared for free
and fair elections because they believe they would definitely lose
such elections," said Aram Sarkisian, leader of the radical Republic
Party and a key ally of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, who
recently announced his own presidential bid. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. "They will, therefore, try to hold unfair
elections at any cost," Sarkisian told EurasiaNet.

A spokesman for the opposition Heritage Party, one of the two
opposition groups represented in Armenia’s parliament, also warned
of a government "cover-up" of possible vote rigging. "What do the
authorities want to hide from the OSCE?" asked Hovsep Khurshudian.

"If, as they say, everything is going to be all right [in the
elections,] why do they support these restrictions?"

"It is also dishonorable for Armenia to act in covenant with
dictatorial countries like Belarus and Uzbekistan," Khurshudian added.

Yerevan’s support for the Russian proposals is all the more surprising
given the fact that Armenia’s most recent parliamentary elections,
held last May and swept by pro-government parties, were found to
be largely democratic by more than 200 observers deployed by the
OSCE/ODIHR. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"Armenia did not have any problems with the number of our observers
and their findings," ODIHR spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir told Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty on October 26. "So we don’t see any good
reason why Armenia would support such a proposal now."

The United States has also rejected the Russian proposals.

Senior lawmakers from the three parties represented in the Armenian
government voiced their opposition to any curbs on Western-led vote
monitoring in separate news briefings on October 26. "I think the
larger the monitoring missions coming here are, the more objective
their conclusions will be," said Eduard Sharmazanov of the Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA), led by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

"I personally am against that," said Avet Adonts of the pro-Kocharian
Prosperous Armenia Party, the second largest parliamentary force.

"The more international organizations monitor our electoral processes,
the better."

Hrayr Karapetian, the parliamentary leader of the RPA’s second
coalition partner, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, went further,
suggesting that foreign observers be deployed in each of Armenia’s
roughly 2,000 electoral precincts. With Kocharian and Sarkisian
widely believed to be single-handedly making key government decisions,
such statements are not expected to influence the country’s two top
leaders, though.

Observers note that it is not the first time that Armenia joins Russia,
its main international ally, in demanding a "reform" of OSCE bodies
promoting democratization. Yerevan has also sided with Moscow in
other international organizations like the United Nations and the
Council of Europe. All of which raises the question of whether the
Kocharian administration backed the latest Russian proposals with an
eye towards the approaching presidential ballot or out of solidarity
with the Kremlin. Opposition leaders believe that both considerations
were at play.

"The Armenian authorities were simply afraid having problems with
Russia," claimed the Republic Party’s Sarkisian. "The Russians must
have exerted pressure on them, and that is another reason why the
Armenian authorities backed those proposals."

Khurshudian, for his part, complained that Armenian foreign policy is
now "tied to the interests of a foreign power." "We are very concerned
that Armenia’s sovereignty has diminished so dramatically," he said.

Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a freelance reporter based in Yerevan.