Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb. 26 2008

OSCE Head Discusses Post-Election Unrest In Armenia

By Ruben Meloyan

The chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe met Armenia’s top government and opposition
leaders on Tuesday to discuss mounting tensions in the country in the
wake of last week’s presidential election.

Outgoing President Robert Kocharian’s office said Finland’s Foreign
Minister Ilkka Kanerva praised the Armenian authorities for showing
`restraint’ in dealing with opposition protesters challenging the
official election results. `He expressed confidence that Armenia’s
authorities will continue to display prudence and will act with
methods accepted in civilized countries,’ it said in a statement.

A separate statement by the Armenian government said Kanerva `warmly
congratulated’ Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian on his victory in the
February 19 election which was formally declared by the Central
Election Commission on Sunday. Sarkisian was quoted as praising the
work of some 400 representatives of the OSCE, the Council of Europe
and the European Union who monitored the vote.

The observers concluded in their preliminary report that the vote was
administered `mostly in accordance’ with democratic standards.

Kanerva endorsed this assessment at a joint news conference with
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. But he noted that the observers
also reported voting irregularities and serious problems during the
counting of ballots.

`The report contains positive and critical elements,’ Kanerva said.
`One needs to keep in mind both of those dimensions in that
preliminary report. Legal complaints against the electoral process
must be fully investigated. That’s more than natural.’

Kanerva added that the observers’ final report, due to be issued by
mid-April, therefore `will not be quite clean.’ `But even if it’s not
clean, it doesn’t mean that everything has failed,’ he said. `So this
is a positive steps towards functioning democracy. It will take time,
it will take some elections.’

Later in the day, Kanerva met with former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, Sarkisian’s main challenger who has rejected the
official results as fraudulent. The Finnish official called the
meeting `very informative’ but did not give details.