Yerevan/Mediamax/. The International Observation Mission has announced that the early parliamentary elections in Armenia "were free and widely trusted in the society”.
The mission, a joint endeavour of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament, included around 320 observers from 39 countries.
International observers did not give a common estimate of the parliamentary elections Armenia held on April 2, 2017.
They noted that although the elections were well administered and showed improvement in terms of organization, they failed to address issues regarding the public trust in electoral process.
In particular, the mission leaders voiced concern over “credible” reports about pressure of voters and vote buying.
After the 2013 presidential elections, the observers stated they were an improvement as compared to the elections in 2008.
While assessing the 2008 presidential elections, the International Observation Mission said they were administered “mostly in line” with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards.
As for the 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia, the mission stated they were peaceful, but “there were also problems of organizational character and cases of interference in the election process mainly by the representatives of the political parties”.
Comments
Dear visitors, You can place your opinion on the material using your Facebook account. Please, be polite and follow our simple rules: you are not allowed to make off - topic comments, place advertisements, use abusive and filthy language. The editorial staff reserves the right to moderate and delete comments in case of breach of the rules.