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Past Problems |
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Have efforts been made to meet the complaints raised by the OSCE for the 2007 parliamentary elections? |
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The OSCE's international observers qualified Armenia's May 12, 2007 parliamentary election as largely in accordance with international standards for democratic elections, and an improvement from past votes. However, major shortcomings cited included the abuse of state resources by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia and inaccurate voter lists. To make corrections on these counts, parliament amended the election code in November 2007. An amendment that allows voters to vote where they live rather than where they were originally registered -- assuming that they re-register to vote seven days before the elections -- is seen as a step forward in correcting inaccurate or outdated voter lists. A requirement that voters' passports be sealed after they have voted was introduced to prevent carousel or repeat voting, another longstanding complaint about Armenian elections.
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Training |
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What training has been provided for election commission officials or workers at Armenia's 1,923 polling stations? |
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During 2007, the CEC organized three training courses for 12,500 election commission workers with support from IFES and the OSCE. A course begun on January 28 planned to train some 15,000 constituency election commission workers in time for election day.
The It's Your Choice election watchdog has also held voter education seminars for about 100,000 people, by the organization's count.
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Observing |
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How many international and local observers will be observing the elections? |
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The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will have 28 long-term observers, who have been working in the country since mid- January, and some 250 short-term observers. They will make up the largest international observation group. The Commonwealth of Independent States will supply some 150 observers. There are also 6,775 local observers taking part in the elections, representing non-governmental organizations ranging from It's Your Choice, Armenia's largest election observation organization, to various human rights offices.
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Voter Registration |
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Armenian elections in the past were notorious for invalid or fraudulent voter registration lists.
What steps have been taken to correct these lists, and how effective have they been? |
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As of late January, the Central Election Commission reported that some 2, 312, 945 citizens are registered to vote in the presidential election. By law, voter lists were posted in precincts and online at http://www.elections.am 40 days before the vote. If a voter does not find his or her name on the voter list, a CEC telephone hotline has been set up to provide further instruction. Such voters can write to district officials one week before the elections or to a local passport department five days before the elections to have their names put on the registry. Failing all else, voters can take their case to court on election day. In the past, however, the necessity to go to a court and wait a few hours for a decision prompted many voters to dispense with this redress.
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Vote Monitoring |
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How will "carousel" voting be prevented? |
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Ballot booths will not feature dark curtains so that voter actions can be clearly seen. In the past, such curtains allowed voters to substitute a marked ballot taken from outside for the one received in the polling station.
Another election code amendment requires that voters' passports be sealed with a stamp after they have voted to prevent repeat voting.
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Government Influence |
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What are the rules restricting the abuse of administrative resources? |
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Articles 22 and 78 of the Electoral Code prohibit any abuse of administrative resources both during the election and the election campaign, however, this provision has been regularly breached in the past. The non-governmental organization Supreme Council Deputy Group, an opposition-friendly human and civil rights defense group that is active in election observation, reports that it has sent 12 complaints about such cases since 2006, but that none of them,to date, have been considered by the CEC.
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