ADVICE SO GREAT AND MARVELOUS TO INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS
James Hakobyan

Lragir
Jan 18 2008
Armenia

The president of Armenia gave rather profound advice to the OSCE
long-term observers whom he met January 22. Robert Kocharyan said
he expects that before reporting a fact the observers will study
it thoroughly. It is highly important. In fact, a bit of hastiness
on behalf of the observers may damage the international reputation
of Armenia and waste the money and efforts spent in 2007. It is
even necessary to provide special glasses, microscopes, binoculars
to observers to observe the election fiber by fiber, molecule by
molecule, atom by atom. For instance, if the observers have observed
and reported that before the start of the election campaign some
young people visited homes of people and explained why people should
vote for Serge Sargsyan, they hurried in vain. First they should have
studied this fact thoroughly. It is possible that the young people who
visited people’s homes were not electioneering for Serge Sargsyan but
wanted to say hello to the citizens of their native city. Is saying
hello to the people of one’s city a violation of the Constitution?

Or the observers may have learned that at some places they gather the
passports of people, copy the data, make mysterious lists, threaten
to fire people if they fail to bring at least five or ten passports.

If it is strange to a foreigner, it does not mean that he should label
it as illegality. If they study thoroughly, they will find out that
the government is holding a qualification stage for the contest of
Miss and Mr. Passport 2008.

Or the observers see on the day of voting some people with bags
distribute money to voters. They will report immediately. Meanwhile,
a thorough study will reveal that the person had borrowed money
from his neighbor in the soviet years, and since he could not find
him anywhere, he waited in front of the polling station, hoping that
the neighbor would come to vote. Or the observers notice someone try
to vote for multiple times, or at multiple polling stations. They
will immediately report an illegality. Meanwhile, it is a mere burst
of patriotism which affects separate citizens. A thorough analysis
will show that at different polling stations they vote for different
candidates to maintain the balance. Or maybe a person has sworn to
vote in nine polling stations. Why to violate their religious beliefs
and describe their action as a breach without finding out details? Or a
thorough study may reveal that the people who vote at different polling
stations are local observers or proxies of opposition candidates who
vote at different polling stations disguised as voters to find out
where they might encounter problems with fulfilling their civil duty.

Therefore, the international observers need not hurry regarding
anything, including their meals. They must study their food thoroughly
otherwise the fishbone may get stuck in their throats and they will
immediately report that in Armenia the activities of international
observers were hindered with food. In the end, another expectation
from the international observers. Do study the cases not only before
reporting but also before not reporting them. In other words, do
scrutinize legalities as well, for later major illegalities may
be revealed. After all, you are in the birthplace of a millennial
civilization which knows one thousand relatively honest means of
election fraud.