OBSERVERS HAVE NEGATIVE IMPRESSION

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31 January, 2008

"Your polling stations remind me a railway station" , announced Mr John
Prescott, Head of the pre-election delegation of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe at the NA during the meeting with
journalists. He was astonished by the advantages our Election Code
grants. Mr John Prescott noted that he could not imagine 35 people
in a polling station – members, observers, proxies, voters. "Only
members of commission and voters have the right to be present in
our polling stations", said Mr Prescott. He presented the results of
their observation mission, which almost concurred with the interim
report of the OSCE/ODHIR.

PACE observers find: "Genuinely democratic elections, and the
legitimacy of their outcome in the eyes of the people, depend on a
high level of public confidence in the electoral process. In that
respect, the delegation is concerned with the apparent lack of
trust in the electoral process, including in the impartiality of
the legal complaints and appeals process, expressed by a number of
interlocutors. It therefore strongly recommends that the authorities
take all necessary measures to ensure the public confidence in the
electoral process, especially with regard to the secrecy of the vote
and the transparency of the counting and tabulation processes".

"The delegation regrets the clearly imbalanced media coverage on most
broadcast media, including public television, before the official
campaign period".

"The delegation heard several complaints that the current Prime
Minister, who is a Presidential candidate, would have unfair campaign
advantages as a result of his decision to maintain his position as
Prime Minister during the campaign period. While recognising the
legality of the current Prime Minister to continue his functions
despite being a candidate, it adds to the responsibility of the
government to avoid any perception that administrative resources are
abused in favour of, or against, any particular candidate".

Mr John Prescott noted that the problems registered during the
parliamentary elections should be overcome and noted that posted
protocols were torn away quickly, thus: "The delegation hopes that
the technical problems then encountered have been overcome and
recommend that the CEC sets a minimal timeframe during which the
results protocols have to be publicly posted at the polling stations".

The European observers also noted: "The Election Code ensures a
balanced composition of all election commissions, but it was noted that
this balance was not reflected in the composition of the leadership
troikas of the Territorial Election Commissions. The delegation hopes
that this imbalance will not be repeated at the level of the Precinct
Election Commissions".

"The delegation welcomes that, till now, the election campaign has
taken place in an open and unimpeded climate, but took note of reports
by some candidates about their difficulties in obtaining campaign
offices in some regions".

"The delegation is confident that the authorities will address the
concerns of the delegation and will continue its efforts to organise
fully democratic Presidential Elections that will have the full
confidence of the Armenian people".

The European observes have met Robert Kocharyan, Chairmen of the NA
and the Constitutional Court, Head of the Armenian Delegation to PACE,
Ambassadors of European structures, representatives of mass media
and NGOs, as well as 8 presidential candidates, but did not mention
their names.

To the question whether Mr Prescott had met Levon Ter-Petrosyan and
whether he was aware that two criminal cases were lodged against his
supporters, Mr Prescott responded that they could not interfere in
the case, since it referred to the RA law keepers.

The results of the monitoring the observers will hand over to the group
of 30 observers, who will arrive on 18 February and are responsible
for the observation of the whole election process. The final report
is due in two months after the presidential elections.