PACE WANTS EARLY ARMENIAN VOTE REFORMS

Hurriyet
March 19 2010
Turkey

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE,
has agreed to give Armenia until the end of this year to reform
its electoral system, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL,
reported Thursday on its Web site.

The Armenian government presented a timeline of reforms to PACE in
Paris on March 17 and pledged to reform the country’s electoral system
by the end of 2010.

The promised reforms should make the new system functional before
the next parliamentary elections, due in 2012, the head of Armenia’s
parliamentary delegation to PACE told RFE/RL from Paris.

"The concept of how to file a lawsuit or protest in court the actions
of police or law-enforcement agencies has already been presented
to the Council of Europe for evaluation," delegation head David
Harutyunian said. "We expect [within] one month to get the answer,
after which we can start legislative work."

The PACE meeting followed a March 16 demonstration in which thousands
of opposition supporters marched to the Council of Europe office in
Yerevan to demand that PACE push for snap elections in Armenia and
for other government measures being sought by the opposition Armenian
National Congress.

Violent unrest followed Armenia’s February 2008 presidential election,
won by Serge Sarkisian.