By Emil Danielyan

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 findings of some 400 observers mostly representing the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) came as a further serious boost for
President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, who have retained
a comfortable majority in Armenia’s parliament.

“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.

“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 a delayed 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.”