Armenian Political Expert Skeptical about Pace Depriving Armenia of
Voting Right

YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) is not likely to deprive Armenia of the right to vote,
according to Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Mass Media
Institute (CMI).

Adopted this April, PACE Resolution 1609 on democratic institutions in
Armenia urges the country’s authorities to strengthen democratic
institutes by the summer session of the RA Parliament. Otherwise,
Armenia will be deprived of its right to vote in the Assembly.

The authors of the resolution, John Prescott and Georges Colombier,
call on Armenia’s authorities to step up their efforts to implement
political reforms, taking the opposition’s opinion into account. They
also urge Armenia to reform the electoral system and ensure
independence of mass media, as well as to guarantee the freedom of
assembly both by law and in practice. If Armenia fails to meet these
commitments, PACE will deprive it of the right to vote.

`It has not been specified in the document that the resolution must
honor the commitments of the resolution, and it would be strange if
PACE urged any country to do anything like that,’ Iskandaryan said.

What Armenia needs to do is to comply with these commitments and
obligations, according to the CMI Director.

Armenia could reject the resolution if it were to fulfill all the
commitments, he said.

As regards the opposition, it has to adopt the RA Constitution’s
decision (concerning the results of the presidential polls – ARKA),
according to the political expert. He was sure that the opposition will
not meet this commitment. -0–