Excerpts from report by Armenian news agency Noyan Tapan on 3rd June
Yerevan, 2nd June: Only 21,000 out of the 150,000 citizens not
initially included into the electoral rolls obtained legal
permission to vote [in court], but 13 per cent [of voters], who
had the constitutional right to vote, were deprived of this
right, the chairwoman of the Justice and Law public
organization, Nelli Bagdasaryan, who was accredited at the
Central Electoral Commission as an election observer, told a
news conference on 2nd June.
The chairwoman of another organization accredited as an
observer, the [Armenian] Republican Council of Women's Nora
Akopyan, said that according to their nationwide observations,
195 observers out of 610 did not record any serious violations,
and 45 of them witnessed infringements mainly due to the
"mysterious situation" over the electoral rolls.
The preliminary conclusion of the Armenian Republican
Council of Women, League of Woman Voters and Justice and Law
public organizations, publicized at the news conference, was
that there should be a juridical investigation into the mass
violations that observers did not attribute solely to
carelessness.
The observers recorded other violations as well: election
bribes, violation of the secrecy of the ballot, the presence of
people who ought not to have been there at polling stations,
marching soldiers up to the polling stations to vote, and
campaigning on election day.
[Passage omitted: details]
Local observer organizations will submit their final
conclusions in two to three days, during which they will
refrain from evaluation, as the observers are to observe the
principle of objectivity established by the Electoral Code.
Source: Noyan Tapan news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1240 gmt 03 Jun 99
BBC Mon TCU 030699 mm/vz