Published since 1951
Published on February 20, 2008
ARMENIAN VOTE 'LARGELY DEMOCRATIC'
- International observers made a largely positive assessment of the Armenian presidential election on Wednesday, while reporting serious problems during the counting of ballots and noting a continuing lack of public trust in the electoral process. The preliminary findings of the main international vote-monitoring mission jointly deployed in Armenia by the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament came as a major boost to the international legitimacy to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s disputed election victory. “The February 19 presidential election in the Republic of Armenia was administered mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards,” the mission said in a statement. “The high-State authorities made genuine efforts to address shortcomings noted in previous elections, including the legal framework, and repeatedly stated their intention to conduct democratic elections.” The report stressed that the 400 or so mostly Western observers found no major irregularities in “a large majority” of polling stations visited by them on Tuesday. But it said at the same time that the Armenian authorities have failed to address chronic problems such as a lack of “equal treatment of election contestants” and Sarkisian’s heavy reliance on his government levers. “The conduct of the count did not contribute to reducing an existing suspicion amongst election stakeholders,” the observers said, adding that the process was assessed as “bad” or “very bad” in 16 percent of polling stations visited by them. “Some of our observers had very bad experiences during the vote count,” said Anne-Marie Lizin, a senior Belgian lawmaker representing the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. According to John Prescott, Britain’s former deputy prime minister who led a delegation of Council of Europe parliamentarians in the mission, these problems prevented “the overall progress that we had hoped for.” “We are afraid that the problems we encountered yesterday, especially during the vote count, will do nothing to reduce this lack of trust among the Armenian people, despite the marked progress made in other areas of the elections,” he told a news conference. “The final choice does of course lie in the hands of the Armenian people,” said Prescott. “Therefore, its trust in the electoral system is crucial to genuine democracy, and we feel that there is still a lot more to be done.” Neither Prescott, nor other top members of the mission would say whether they think the reported violations may have affected the official vote results that gave a landslide victory to Sarkisian. “We don’t comment on the results,” said Lizin. “We comment on the process.” The mission report did not give weight to reports of mass beatings of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s proxies, mentioning only “a few isolated violent incidents.” It also implied that vote buying was not widespread, contrary to opposition claims and media reports. The observers further said that they witnessed only one instance of ballot box stuffing. (Photolur photo)
- By Emil Danielyan
Headlines for February 20, 2008
SARKISIAN DECLARED ELECTION WINNER
By Karine Kalantarian and Anna Saghabalian
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was declared on Wednesday the winner of Armenia’s presidential election which President Robert Kocharian hailed as “free and fair,” but his two main challengers refused ...TER-PETROSIAN CLAIMS VICTORY, RALLIES THOUSANDS IN YEREVAN
By Hovannes Shoghikian, Ruzanna Stepanian and Astghik Bedevian
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian claimed to be the rightful winner of the Armenian presidential election and vowed to “fight till the end” on Wednesday as tens of thousands of his supporters demonstrated ...ARMENIAN VOTE 'LARGELY DEMOCRATIC'
By Emil DanielyanInternational observers made a largely positive assessment of the Armenian presidential election on Wednesday, while reporting serious problems during the counting of ballots and noting a continuing lack ...
Most read news (last 7 days)
TER-PETROSIAN CLAIMS VICTORY, RALLIES THOUSANDS IN YEREVAN
By Hovannes Shoghikian, Ruzanna Stepanian and Astghik BedevianCONFIDENT TER-PETROSIAN THREATENS ‘LASTING’ RALLIES
By Emil Danielyan and Astghik BedevianDASHNAK LEADER HITS BACK AT TER-PETROSIAN
By Ruzanna KhachatrianARMENIA, KARABAKH ‘CLOSELY WATCH’ KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE PUSH
By Astghik BedevianVOTING UNDERWAY IN ARMENIA
By Ruzanna Khachatrian, Ruzanna Stepanian, Emil Danielyan and Ruben MeloyanSARKISIAN EXPECTS FIRST-ROUND WIN
By Emil Danielyan and Satenik Vantsian in GyumriTER-PETROSIAN FURIOUS AS BAGHDASARIAN STAYS IN RACE
By Ruzanna Stepanian and Ruzanna KhachatrianSARKISIAN DECLARED ELECTION WINNER
By Karine Kalantarian and Anna SaghabalianARMENIAN OPPOSITION CRIES FOUL AMID REPORTS OF VIOLENCE, FRAUD
By Astghik Bedevian, Karine Kalantarian, Ruben Meloyan, Ruzanna Stepanian and Anna SaghabalianTER-PETROSIAN STEPS UP PRESSURE ON BAGHDASARIAN
By Ruzanna Stepanian and Anna Saghabalian
© AUA
Today in Armenian history- 1728 Death of General Davit Bek.
- 1862 Defense of Van against Turkish exactions and terrorism.
- 1904 Birth of Abraham Alikhanov in Tbilisi (Georgia). He became a physicist and an academician of the USSR. In 1940, he organized the first expedition to Mount Elbrus to explore Cosmic Rays. He made many basic discoveries in this area.
- 1908 Inauguration of the Ulukhanlu-Julfa railroad.
- 1936 Death of Alexander Tamanyan (architect) in Yerevan. He was born in 1878.
- 1940 Death of public figure Stepan Yessayan. He was one of the founders of "Pan-National" Cultural Organization of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party.
- 1988 The Autonomous Region (oblast) of Nagorno Gharabagh applies to the Supreme Soviets of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the USSR to consider and resolve positively the question of handing over Nagorno Karabagh from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia.
- 1988 The Regional Council of Deputies from Artsakh decides to be reintegrated with Armenia.
Forum most active discussions
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.