May 15, 2007

ARF-DASHNAKTSTYUN INCREASES ITS VOTES
IN ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

YEREVAN, Armenia: The party of Armenia's prime minister garnered the most votes in parliamentary elections on May 12, officials said, as foreign observers praised the vote and opposition parties accused authorities of fraud.

Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian's Republican Party was leading in the list of five parties topping the 5 percent minimum for seats in the 131-seat National Assembly, the Central Elections Commission said Sunday, May 13.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, meanwhile, commended the vote, saying it was, on the whole, better than the previous one four years ago.

"The election campaign was dynamic with extensive media coverage. Election day was calm, with no major incidents reported, but a few cases of fraud schemes were observed," the OSCE's election monitoring team said in a report. "Some procedural problems arose during the count and tabulation of votes as well as isolated cases of deliberate falsifications."

The organization also said there were some problems and inconsistencies in election regulations, and officials were slow to correct irregularities.

The EU also praised the elections, saying they were "on the whole, conducted fairly, freely and largely in accordance with the international commitments which Armenia had entered into."

May 15, 2007, ARF-Dashnaktsutyun press conference, (L to R) Vahan Hovahannisyan,
Armen Rustamyan and Davit Lokyan: Top three on the party list

Central Elections Commission figures said the Republican Party, with 34.1 percent of the vote, was trailed by Prosperous Armenia, with 15.2 percent, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, with 13.2 percent. Two other parties, Country of Law and Heritage, got less than 10 percent each, but enough to obtain seats in parliament.

Of the 131 seats, 90 are chosen according to proportions that parties get nationwide and 41 in single-mandate contests.

Roughly 1.37 million people, or about 60 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in Saturday's election, officials said
.
President Robert Kocharian congratulated Armenians Monday saying that Saturday’s Parliamentary Elections were free and fair and marked “another major step towards democracy.”

“[The elections] were free, fair, and transparent, which is certified by the Central Election Commission, law-enforcement bodies, as well as local and international observers,” he said in a written address to the nation. “I congratulate all of us on taking yet another step towards democracy.”

Kocharian said authorities will “meticulously examine” and redress all irregularities reported during the vote. He also urged election contenders to end election-related recriminations and “restore the atmosphere of mutual tolerance” now that the official vote results have been announced.

Kocharian visited the Republican Party headquarters in downtown Yerevan to congratulate it on the landslide victory on Monday. He also extended congratulations to Tsarukian and other Prosperous Armenia leaders who visited the presidential palace later in the day.
Kocharian telephoned ARF Bureau chairman Hrant Margaryan on Monday to congratulate the party’s showing.

Western observers made a positive assessment of the Armenian government’s handling of the weekend parliamentary elections, saying that they were largely democratic despite a “bad” counting of ballots in a considerable number of polling stations.

“The Armenian election elections were an improvement from previous elections and were conducted largely in accordance with international standards for democratic elections,” Tone Tingsgaard, vice-president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said on behalf of the observer mission that also comprised parliamentarians from the European Union and the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.

“The conduct of the voting was assessed positively in the vast majority of polling stations observed,” she told a news conference in Yerevan. “And the vote count, although very slow, was mostly conducted in a correct manner.”

“It is good to see that the previous elections, which were strongly criticized by the international community, were not repeated,” said Leo Platvoet, head of a delegation of observers from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). The Armenian authorities have addressed many of the election-related recommendations made by the Strasbourg-based organization, he said.

Marie Anne Isler Beguin, who led a smaller team of monitors from the European Parliament, likewise said that the elections took place without “major incidents” and were a “step forward” in the democratization of Armenia’s political system.

A 10-page preliminary report released by the heads of the OSCE-led observer mission concluded at the same time that the authorities in Yerevan were “unable to fully deliver a performance consistent with their stated intention that the election would meet international standards and some issues remained unaddressed.” It noted in particular that counting of ballots was “bad or very bad” in about 20 percent of polling stations visited by the observers.

“This figure is far too high to [make one] feel comfortable,” said Platvoet.

Boris Frlec, who led the mission’s core segment deployed by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, expressed concern at delay of the tabulation of vote results from many polling station in Yerevan by the Central Election Commission. “This does not correspond to the fact that have already received vote protocols [from those polling stations] this morning,” he said. “The mission is in the process of comparing data from the received protocols with all the election results posted on the CEC website.”

Both Frlec and Platvoet said that their observers also witnessed instances of voters being bused to polling stations across the country. But they said the observers have no compelling evidence to claim that those voters were bribed by pro-government candidates. Armenian opposition parties say vote buying was widespread during and in the run-up to Saturday’s voting.

The mission’s report listed specific polling stations in various parts of the country where the mostly Western observers claim to have witnessed multiple voting, “deliberate falsification of results,” and other types of electoral fraud.

Still, Tingsgaard insisted that none of those reported violations were serious enough to significantly affect the election outcome. But she stopped short of explicitly endorsing the credibility of the vote results released by the Central Election Commission. “It is my hope that they reflect the will of the people,” said the OSCE parliamentarian.

“It’s not black and it’s not white,” Platvoet said of the conduct of the vote. “But I think it’s more white than black.”

Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Monday made the following comments concerning the parliamentary elections in Armenia:

"I congratulate the people of Armenia on the improvements in the conduct of the parliamentary elections yesterday, which were conducted largely in accordance with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments, and I encourage the Armenian Government to rapidly address the shortcomings identified by the international observers,” said the statement.

“The Armenian people have demonstrated greater political maturity through these elections. I am confident that Armenia and the EU will continue to develop relations in a spirit of partnership. This will also be a positive signal to other countries in the region,” added Solana.

“I also congratulate the election observers - in particular the many EU nationals among them - on successfully completing their important work,” he concluded.

The German presidency of the European Union said on Sunday that weekend elections in Armenia were "on the whole" conducted fairly and freely.

"The Presidency welcomes the fact that compared to previous elections, significant progress has been made," a statement said.

It called on Armenia ahead of presidential elections in 2008 "to investigate and resolve the procedural problems which still exist, particularly those concerning vote-counting but also the isolated cases of irregularities which were observed."

Armenia’s largest vote-monitoring organization echoed on Monday international observers’ largely positive verdict on Saturday’s parliamentary elections which it said were more democratic than the previous ones.

The non-governmental organization It’s Your Choice monitored the election campaign and deployed about 4,000 observers in most of the polling stations across the country on voting day.

“These elections were better and took place in a more civilized atmosphere than the past elections,” the IYC chairman, Harutyun Hambartsumyan, told RFE/RL, presenting their preliminary findings. “Of course, there were shortcomings, violations. But there was a clear improvement.”

ARF-Dashnaktsutyun increases its vote

These were the third parliamentary elections the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun participated in. In the 1999 elections, the ARF garnered 84232 votes; in the 2003 elections it gained 136270 votes, and now in the 2007 elections its support vote increased to 177192.

Of the 122 candidates on the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun list 28 (23%) are women and 10 (0.8%) are non-party members.

The ARF-Dashnaktsutyun ran a compaign based on an electoral platform promoting social justice, increased pentions and minimum wages to be attained through the fight against corruption and shadow economy, as well as on economic growth based on a concerted effrot to increase export oriented manufacturing.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, May 15, the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun described the recent parliamentary elections in Armenia as “ progress along the path to democratic elections meeting the international standards” and noted the high activity of the electors on voting day.

“At the same time, one should admit that we failed to fully prevent pernicious phenomena during the election processes and exclude the possibility of gaining votes by means of compulsion and bribery. Despite this, the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun recognizes the outcome of the elections and its preliminary results”, the statement reads.

At a press conference at the party's headquarters on Tuesday, ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Supreme Council of Armenia chairman Armen Rustamyan stated that the party "will not form a coalition with the Armenian Republican party for the simple reason that the political landscape created as a the result of the elections allows the Republican Party of Armenia to form a government on its own and to undertake sole responsibility. The ARF-Dashnaktsutyun will not be a symbolic part of the government”, announced Armen Rustamyan. Furthermore, Rustamyan stated that "up to this moment no offer to join a coalition has been received."

Armen Rustamyan also stated that the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun considers that the 180 thousand votes that were given to the party were a conscious political choice and thanks its supporters. “We assess these elections as a gradual increase of the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun's reputation".
Referring to the violations on election days, Rustamyan announced that “certain parties did not stand behind their places in the electoral committees.”

“Those political parties which sold their places in the committees, who withdrew under pressure or fear, who were unable to control the situation were punished during these elections and they are not in the parliament today”, announced ARF-Dasnaktsutyun Bureau member and Deputy-speaker of the outgoing National Assembly Vahan Hovhannisyan. According to him, the frauders were also punished “in their places”. “The citizen who voted by bribe was also punished during these elections, and he will still taste the future”,- said Vahan Hovhannisyan. He counted the votes of the opposition parties that overcame or failed to overcome the 5 percent benchmark and noted that 30 percent of votes were given to the opposition. The fact that the opposition could not unite is the reason that most of those votes are not represented in the National Assembly, concluded Hovhannisyan.

ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Bureau
International Secretariat