CEC CANNOT BE GUARANTOR FOR HOLDING FAIR, TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS, NOR ZHAMANAKNER PARTY MEMBER CONSIDERS
Noyan Tapan
Jan 16 2007
YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA presidential elections
cannot be legal and it is just a formality to speak about holding
them transparently and fairly. Hrach Sargsian, a member of the Nor
Zhamanakner (New Times) party’s ruling body, said at the January 16
discussion on the subject "The RA Central Electoral Commission and
Ensuring of Legality and Transparency of Elections." According to him,
"CEC cannot be the guarantor of holding fair, transparent elections,
as it is dependent on the body forming it, the authorities."
According to Armen Martirosian, a member of the RA NA Zharangutiun
(Heritage) faction, CEC’s formation should correspond to the situation
formed in the political sphere. According to him, only two out of the
eight members of CEC represent the opposition sphere at present. In A.
Martirosian’s opinion, that is one of the reasons that CEC is not able
to fulfil is duties. In particular, according to him, CEC does not
solve the problem of unequal coverage of the candidates by media. "The
election campaign has already started for some of the candidates and
CEC undertakes no steps in this direction," he said.
Whereas, as Sona Sargsian, OYP representative in CEC, said, the
election campaign for opposition candidates will start from January
21 from TV air, at that, at a very inconvenient hour, at 17:00,
when the most of the peole is at work. Touching upon inaccuracies
in electoral rolls, S. Sargsian said that they become a basis for
committing mass falsifications.