PACE MONITORING MISSION EVALUATION NON-BIASED? OPINION

Regnum, Russia
Dec 3 2007

Evaluation of parliamentary election in Russia presented by leaders
of PACE monitoring mission is politically biased, OSCE mission
representative, member of Council of the Republican Party of Armenia
Armen Ashotyan said in an interview to REGNUM. Mr. Ashotyan said he
would prefer if election in Russia was evaluated as an independent act,
outside the context of the controversy between Russia and the Council
of Europe and OSCE," the deputy observed. He added that the controversy
prevented the European officials to issue a more objective judgment.

"Despite the judgment disseminated by the PACE monitoring mission
office, the parliamentary election in Russia, to my mind, was held
in accordance with the Russian legislation, the Constitution of
the Russian Federation, and international recommendations. Although
the secretariat’s evaluation was not accepted unanimously and some
allegations caused argument and dissent not only on my behalf, but
also among parliamentarians from Greece, Finland, and Italy, our
opinions was not taken into account," accounts Armen Ashotyan. He
says that monitoring at the polling stations did not reveal serious
violations of the electoral process.

"Some statements of the evaluation are surprising: the short-term
monitoring PACE mission could not allow such a deep analysis," the
Armenian deputy argues. Mr. Ashotyan also regrets that observations
and suggestions of some deputies were not taken into account by the
PACE mission leaders, and that the statement issued by the mission
leadership did not reflect all opinions of the mission members.

On Dec 3, OSCE and PACE observers at the vote to the State Duma
of the 5th convocation announced their assessment of the election
process. PACE chairman Goran Lennmarker declared that the vote
could not meet common European electoral criteria, hence the OSCE
observation mission could not call it fair. PACE observation mission
head Luc Van den Brande uttered that the election to the State Duma
of the 5th convocation did not meet criteria "adopted in European
democratic community."

OSCE and CoE, as well as parliamentary assemblies of the organizations,
perform monitoring of elections in the post-Soviet countries from the
moment of these countries’ joining the Council of Europe. They have
issued roughly positive evaluations of elections in Ukraine in 2006
and 2007, pointing mostly to the fact that the elections had been held
largely in accord with the OSCE and CE requirements, as well as with
Ukraine’s obligations with these organizations. The bureaucracies also
generally did not mind too much parliamentary vote in Armenia in 2007.

Quite contrary was the mood of the European machines in 2003. OSCE
and CE severely criticized parliamentary election in Armenia that
year. The same year’s election in Georgia was appraised with even
harsher rhetoric.

PACE representatives claimed that they were shocked by the amount
of violations. Head of the PACE delegation lamented that the people
of Georgia deserved a much better election, and the OSCE echoed the
thesis. Straight after the accusations Mikhail Saakashvili led the
people to the assault of the parliament.

The European observers also frowned over parliamentary election in
Azerbaijan in 2005 where, they claimed, international norms were
grossly violated. Among violations listed by OSCE were: restrictions
of the freedom of meetings, confusions in voters’ registration, and
breaches in votes’ count. Failing to meet international requirements
was also announced parliamentary vote in Kazakhstan in 2007.