ARMENIAN OFFICIALS BAN INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS FROM MONITORING ELECTIONS

2007/05/10
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Press Release from: MWMA

The Central European Group of Political Monitoring (Germany) and the Independent American Center for Political Monitoring are NGOs who monitored elections in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. We are shocked by the authorities who violated the Constitution and prevented us from observing the Armenian Parliamentary elections. In April we asked to monitor Parliamentary elections scheduled for May 12, 2007. This right is granted by Articles 28, 29 and 30 of Armenian law.

Article 28. 1. International organizations shall have the right to carry out observation missions: Article 29.

Accreditation of Observers 1. Organizations specified in Article 28 of this Code may carry out observation missions after being accredited by the Central Electoral Commission. Nothing in these laws prevents our organizations from monitoring the elections without an invitation. This would cripple the democratic missions and the independent NON-governmental observers. We contacted the Head of the Department of Foreign Relations, Ms. L. Symonian at the Elections Committee. Ms. Symonian said that in order for us to monitor the elections, we would have to invited by the government or Parliament. We next contacted the International Organizations Department to obtain an invitation. We were informed that invitations were extended only to government-affiliated organizations.

We called the Elections Committee and were told that the governmental organization requirement derives from Par. 1, Article 28, an amendment to the election law. We were unable to familiarize ourselves with the new law, as there is NO English language version of the amended law on the website of the Elections Committee or anywhere else. We received the same excuse from the Armenian Embassy in Washington. The absence of an English translation raises questions about the existence of such an amendment. If it does exist, its content demonstrates the decision of the party in power to allow only corrupt organizations observe the elections, or those organizations that they could not prevent from observing for one reason or another.

Our suspicions were confirmed by a conversation held with Ms. Symonian and the Head of Staff of the Elections Committee Mr. Levon Grigoryan. We were told, “The Central Elections Committee had completed the list of organizations that will monitor the elections: (The Executive Committee of CIS, The Council of Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of CIS State-Members, and The OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly) are invited by the government. No one will make changes to the list.” When we asked Mr. Gregorian whether he understood that such a violation of law constituted a crime, he responded that the decision of the Elections Committee would stand. When we requested a denial in writing, they hung up the phone. The failure to allow independent observers casts doubts on the legitimacy of the elections in Armenia.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.