EU's Solana praises Armenian election, opposition blasts it

14/ 05/ 2007
Ria Novosti

BRUSSELS, May 14 (RIA Novosti) - EU foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, praised Monday parliamentary elections in Armenia saying they were held in line with international norms and regulations, while local opposition parties said the poll was undemocratic.

More than 2 million Armenians voted May 12 in Armenia's fourth elections since the South Caucasus country gained independence in 1991, with twenty-two parties and one election bloc running for 131 seats in the parliament.

According to preliminary results, three parties backing the current prime minister and the president won an overwhelming majority. Two opposition parties also got seats in the legislature.

Solana called the poll a considerable progress and said it was held in line with norms of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the requirements of the Council of Europe. He added the elections were the first since the European Union and Armenia signed the Neighborhood Policy Action Plan in 2006.

But, opposition parties claimed the vote was falsified, undemocratic and not free.

Stepan Demirchyan, the leader of the Armenian People's Party, said Monday that "the new parliament does not reflect the will of people and has been formed by mass bribes, terror and intimidation". His party, formed in 1998, received about 24,000 of votes (1.7%) failing to overcome the 5% barrier necessary to gain parliamentary seats.

Another opposition party, Orinats Yerkir, which cleared the barrier, has said: "Intimidation of electors, use of bribes and non-existent ballot papers, numerous breaches in the vote count and the distortion of real voting results give ground to question the legitimacy of elections."

The processing of 99.99% of ballot papers showed Sunday that five parties elected to the parliament are - the Republican Party led by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan with 33.8% of the vote, the pro-presidential Prosperous Armenia and Dashnatsutyun with 15.1% and 13.1% of the vote, respectively, and the opposition parties Orinats Yerkir and Heritage with 7% and 6% of the vote, accordingly.

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