Text of report by Armenian news agency Snark on 20th April Armenian communist leader says elections already a farce
Yerevan, 19th April: The forthcoming elections to the Armenian parliament on 30th April have already been discredited before they started by the signatures collected in support of parties seeking election nomination, MP and first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia [CPA], Sergey Badalyan, told a new conference.In his words, the validity of the signatures - over 2.8m of them, submitted to the Central Electoral Commission [CEC] by 21 parties aiming to participate in the elections - provoke doubts. "Even the CPA, which has a mighty structure throughout the territory of the republic, managed to collect 75,000 signatures with great difficulty, by the sweat of its brow. However, at the end 56,000 signatures were submitted", Badalyan said, noting that parties unknown to the public submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures within three days. The leader of the Armenian communists thinks that the people have understood in the course of the collection that it is impossible to hold civilized elections in Armenia.
Badalyan also noted that the CEC must check two per cent of the 2.8m signatures, which amounts to 56,000 signatures according to the calculations of the CPA. "In all, 20 members of the CEC must check 56,000 signatures and by 25th April. Moreover, each member of the CEC must check 2,800 signatures, that is to say, meet 2,800 voters and be sure that they really gave their signatures. It is clear that the performance is practically impossible", Badalyan said, noting that an unhealthy competition had been set up by this which could lead to breaches of the electoral law.
The first secretary thinks that amongst the 21 contender-parties only five-six represent serious political forces and the remaining are artificially established structures with the aim of "going to the future parliament and placing their people in nice jobs". Even in 1995 [last parliamentary elections] there was no such situation, the CPA leader underlined.
Meanwhile, Badalyan noted that the agreement of all political forces of contradictory views on a number of issues was necessary, in particular, for the purpose of holding a civilized election campaign and not on the street level, and in order that party representatives in electoral districts should conduct the elections within the framework of the law. Moreover, he said, there was a preliminary agreement among political forces to refuse nominating and supporting people with a criminal past. This point has already been violated, Badalyan said, noting that it was known to the CPA that among the contenders there were persons accused of murder [reference to former interior minister Vano Siradegyan, who is standing at the head of the Armenian Pan-National Movement list]. In Badalyan's words, this "is an affront to the morals of the Armenian people".
Source: Snark news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 0430 gmt 20 Apr 99Armenia election | Armenia Resource Page | Central Eurasia Project