Continued progress is key to ensuring public confidence in democratic
election, says PACE delegation
Strasbourg, 31.01.2008 – A pre-electoral mission of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe has just completed a visit to Yerevan
to assess the political climate and preparations for the forthcoming
Presidential election in Armenia. Its main task was to assess progress
in the implementation of the electoral framework, as continued progress
in the manner in which the election is conducted will be essential to
ensure public confidence in the electoral process in this country.
The delegation noted that the parliamentary elections in 2007 had shown
progress over previous elections and expressed its hope that this
progress would continue during the forthcoming Presidential election on
19 February 2008. It was therefore heartened by the clearly expressed
political will of the authorities to address previous shortcomings and
to hold fully democratic elections in line with Armenia’s commitments to
the Council of Europe. In this respect, the delegation welcomes the
improvements in the legal framework for these elections, which address a
number of recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly. However, it
would also like to stress that the democratic conduct of the elections
will squarely depend on the electoral framework being fully implemented,
both according to the letter and spirit of the law.
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 public confidence in
the electoral process, especially with regard to the secrecy of the vote
and the transparency of the counting and tabulation processes.
While the setup of the voting booths has been changed to impede
vote-buying and multiple voting, there is some concern that this may
lead to voters inadvertently showing how they voted, especially if large
numbers of people are present in the polling stations. The delegation
saw a sample voting booth and was convinced that they are designed
according to international standards. However, it calls upon the Central
Election Commission (CEC) to take all precautions to ensure the secrecy
of the vote on election day. Moreover, while the CEC has made laudable
efforts to increase the transparency of the tabulation process, these
measures did not work fully satisfactorily during the previous
parliamentary elections. The delegation hopes that the technical
problems encountered at that time have been overcome and recommends that
the CEC sets a minimum timeframe during which the results protocols have
to be publicly posted at polling stations.
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.
Democratic elections demand a level playing field between all candidates
during, but not limited to, the legal campaign period. The delegation
therefore regrets the clearly unbalanced media coverage on most
broadcast media, including public television, before the official
campaign period, as was reported by several monitoring organisations,
including by the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE/ODIHR, whose
findings – published in its first interim report – the delegation fully
supports.
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 continuing 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. The delegation welcomes the fact
that, until now, the election campaign has taken place in an open and
unimpeded climate, but notes reports by some candidates of 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 a
fully democratic Presidential election that will have the full
confidence of the Armenian people.
The delegation would like to thank the authorities for their
co-operation and assistance during this visit. The Parliamentary
Assembly will return to Armenia to observe the Presidential election
with a 30-member delegation.
* * *
(*) The pre-election delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly visited
Yerevan from 29 to 31 January 2008. The cross-party delegation was
composed of John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), Head of Delegation,
Lord Russell-Johnston (United Kingdom, ALDE) and Bjørn Jacobsen
(Norway, UEL). During its visit, the delegation met with the President
of Armenia, the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia, the
Armenian delegation to PACE, the Chairman of the Central Election
Commission, all but one of the Presidential candidates, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, the Head of
the Police, the international community in Armenia, as well as
representatives of the mass media and civil society.
Contact: Bas Klein, mobile: +33 662 265 489.
PRESS RELEASE
Parliamentary Assembly Communication Unit
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The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 318 members from the national
parliaments of the 47 member states.
President: Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) ; Secretary General of the
Assembly: Mateo Sorinas.
Political Groups: SOC (Socialist Group); EPP/CD (Group of the European
People’s Party); ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe);
EDG (European Democratic Group); UEL (Group of the Unified European
Left).