LOCAL MONITORS CRITICIZE YEREVAN VOTE

AZG Armenian Daily
03/06/2009

Elections of Council of Yerevan Elders

Armenia’s largest election-monitoring organization gave on Tuesday a
largely negative evaluation of Sunday’s mayoral elections in Yerevan,
reporting a wide range of irregularities. The independent group It’s
Your Choice, which deployed observers in all of the city’s 439 polling
stations, listed in its preliminary report concrete instances of ballot
stuffing, multiple and illegal voting, voter intimidation, presence
of unauthorized personnel, and other procedural violations. It also
deplored pre-election violence, reports of widespread vote buying,
pro-government parties’ reliance on their "administrative resources"
and their tight control of election commissions The report concluded
that the May 31 elections "further deepened voters’ disappointment
with political parties and electoral processes." It said although they
marked a "small improvement" over last year’s local polls in Yerevan
districts, "there are no sufficient grounds to believe that these
elections passed the threshold of democratic, fair and transparent
elections." Presenting the report, the head of It’s Your Choice,
Harutiun Hambardzumian, said voting was particularly fraudulent in
the city’s Malatia-Sebastia district, scene of the largest number
of irregularities reported by the Armenian opposition, media and
observers. He said It’s Your Choice monitors witnessed ballot box
stuffing in five local precincts. "Ballot stuffing occurred when
large groups of voters made their way into those polling stations
and caused uncontrollable situations," Hambardzumian told a news
conference. "Also, in almost all Malatia-Sebastia precincts,
there was an atmosphere of fear. We were unable and even not
allowed to monitor the voting there in great detail." That there
were serious problems in Malatia-Sebastia is acknowledged by the
Armenian authorities. The Office of the Prosecutor-General on Monday
urged the Central Election Commission (CEC) to order vote recounts
in eight local precincts. The Special Investigative Service (SIS),
a law-enforcement agency subordinated to the prosecutors, said on
Tuesday that it has arrested a pro-government member of one of those
commissions and another Malatia-Sebastia resident on suspicion of
"falsifying vote results." Sona Truzian, the spokeswoman for the
prosecutors, specified that the SIS has evidence of the two men adding
"fake ballots" to the precinct vote tally. She said that as part of
the criminal investigation all ballots cast there will be recounted
at the Office of the Prosecutor-General on Tuesday. Journalists will
be able to attend the recount, she said. The precinct in question was
also the scene of a reported assault on two journalists and an election
observer who witnessed the ballot stuffing. The SIS has pledged to
investigate the attack. According to Truzian, the SIS has also opened
criminal cases in connection with fraud reported by Armenian media
in six other Malatia-Sebastia polling stations. "It is possible that
criminal cases will also be opened in connection with violations in
other precincts," she told RFE/RL, according to azatutyun.am.