The presentation of the Europe in Law Association report following the observation of the 2 April 2017 parliamentary elections in Armenia in the framework of the Citizen Observer Initiative is scheduled at 10։00 am on 24 January 2018 in Parigi Hall of the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel.
The speakers of the report presentation are H.E. Mr. Piotr Antoni Świtalski, Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Armenia, Lousineh Hakobyan, President of the Europe in Law Association NGO, Tigran Yegoryan, Aramazd Kiviryan, Yeranuhi Toumanyants and David Gyurjyan, attorneys representing the ELA. The speakers will refer to the main issues identified during the observation, inter alia the main legislative amendments preceding the 2017 Parliamentary Elections, the main electoral violations fixed during elections and the filing of election-related complaints.
The presentation of the report is part of the project entitled “Public Oversight over Parliamentary Elections 2017”, the overall objective of which is to assist the civil society of Armenia in its efforts to enhance political representation and participation, as well as inclusiveness and pluralism. Included among the deliverables of the project are improved level of transparency of elections, enhanced level of public oversight over the process of elections, developed nationwide cadre of trained election observers and improved capacity of lawyers to deal with electoral disputes.
Through its member organisations Citizen Observer Initiative accredited 3010 observers, 1326 of them were accredited with the Central Electoral Commission on behalf of the Europe in Law Association NGO, 1480 – Transparency International Anticorruption Center and 204 – the Journalists Club ‘Asparez’. Of these 2972 observers were involved in the mission on the Election Day.
The Citizen Observer Initiative monitored all the 13 constituencies of Armenia (4 in the capital Yerevan and 9 in the regions of Armenia). The observation mission covered all the 38 TECs and the 1522 polling stations located in the territory of 37 TECs (about 76% of all polling stations).
In the course of the observation mission observers submitted 1718 reports concerning electoral violations, of which 228 related to the preparation to voting, 919 –the process of voting, and 147 – the summarisation of the results of the vote. There were also 425 reports of violations of general nature. Only 718 of these observations were registered in the Precinct Electoral Commission logs. These violations comprised both repeat and continuing violations.
In total, 309 complaints were submitted to 37 Territorial Electoral Commissions on the violations of observers’ subjective electoral rights and general (objective) rights registered by the Citizen Observer Initiative’s observers and organisations. 127 appeals were then submitted to the Central Electoral Commission and 96 complaints – to the RA Administrative Court. An application contesting the election results was also submitted to the Constitutional Court.
More detailed information on the project can be found on the websites of the Citizen Observer Initiative(www.citizenobserver.am)and the Europe in Law Association(www.ela.am).
In case of having any questions feel free to contact us by e-mail ([email protected]), or phone (010 500 665, 099 588576).
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The observation mission was carried out in the framework of the project ‘Public Oversight Over 2017 Parliamentary Elections’ funded by the European Union and co-funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia.The content of this press release is the sole responsibility of the Europe in Law Association and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia.