Elections in Armenia

[Haykakan]

Re: Elections in Armenia

The issue of transparency I think is a important one for it can instill some form of accountability and public trust. I think this interview also raises another interesting aspect about the mob mentality that is taking hold with the likes of Raffi and some of his followers. It seems that this interviewer like many others is set on declaring people guilty based on nothing more then association or other trivial things. If there is a crime then it should be solved and the criminal punished based on evidence but you can't go around and arrest people just because they have money.

[londontsi]

Re: Elections in Armenia

http://news.am/eng/news/157781.html#

Heated offshore debates in Armenian parliament



June 12, 2013 | 17:11

YEREVAN. – The offshore scandal involving Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan was one of the key issues discussed during the Wednesday debate in parliament.

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) bloc offered to set up a commission to discuss media reports about an offshore company registered in the name of Tigran Sargsyan.

In response to PM’s claims that the reports are spread to discredit him, head of ANC faction Levon Zurabyan asked to explain how $350,000 could appear on the account of a “fake company.”

However, PM did not accept the offer, noting that setting up a commission will prevent lawmakers from discussing other important issues.

An article telling about an offshore company set up by PM Tigran Sargsyan, Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan and others has recently appeared in media. Premier Sargsyan has already filed a petition to the prosecutor’s office.



PS. Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/3549149.html

[Mher]

Re: Presidential elections 2008 in Armenia

Watchdog Cites 'Troubling Deterioration' For Civil Society In Eurasia

By Heather Maher

June 18, 2013
Countries in Central Europe and Central Asia are increasingly being ruled by autocratic governments with little regard for democracy, according to the 2013 "Nations In Transit" report by democracy watchdog Freedom House.

The result has been a worsening of existing corruption, media censorship, and violence against political opposition, the group concludes.

The annual analysis of democratic development from Central Europe to Central Asia says there has been a "troubling deterioration" in conditions for civil society across Eurasia.

"In Eurasia, the story we saw in 2012 was one of authoritarian leadership aggressively cracking down on civil society activity," project director Sylvana Habdank-Kołaczkowska told RFE/RL in connection with the new report. "The biggest ratings change we saw on any of our indicators were related to civil society crackdowns. In some cases, this was a matter of deeply entrenched authoritarian regimes just sort of digging their heels in further, passing new legislation that further restricted civil society activities -- usually targeting freedom of assembly but on a number of issues. Sometimes it was real violence against protesters."

Knock-On Repression

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have again been rated the worst in the region for civil society. Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Belarus were cited for increased persecution of perceived enemies, and Kazakhstan's government is faulted for cracking down on labor organizers.

Freedom House President David Kramer said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s return to office last year brought a return of "the worst repression Russians have suffered since the fall of the Soviet Union."

He said Putin has used his authority over the legislature, media, and the judiciary to impose new policies "designed to muzzle political opposition and civil society activism."

That has emboldened other autocrats in the region to follow suit, he said.

Legislation restricting public assembly, religious activity, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was adopted not only by Russia but also Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. All five countries were downgraded on the group’s Nations In Transit civil-society indicator.

Nearly All Bad News

Not all the news was bad. Freedom House found that Georgia and Armenia "made strides toward more competitive and fair elections as a result of new electoral laws that emphasized equal access to campaign resources and media coverage."

In Ukraine, however, the group found that parliamentary elections were marked by political prosecutions, legal manipulations, bribery, and other official abuses.

Central European states, especially new EU members, experienced political instability in part due to pressure to implement harsh austerity measures. A new government in Romania triggered a crisis when it tried to consolidate its power over state institutions.

The group says Hungary, which last year had already showed dramatic decline, slipped further away from democracy under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In the Balkans, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo all received downgrades on the corruption indicator because their judiciaries were vulnerable to political interference and journalists faced intimidation and attacks.

Habdank-Kołaczkowska said in all three countries, "the implementation of reforms essential to the rule of law -- particularly those underpinning the independence of the judiciary -- has been incomplete, perfunctory, and undermined by a lack of political will."

Nations in Transit is Freedom House’s annual assessment of democratization from Central Europe to Eurasia, using the reform records of 29 countries.

http://www.rferl.org/content/freedom-house-report-/25020038.html

[londontsi]

Re: Presidential elections 2008 in Armenia

Next Governor Of Syunik Is Known: No Further Dismissals

http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/country/view/30368

The meeting of the RPA Executive Body is over, and Member of Parliament Vahe Hakobyan, Republican, was nominated governor of Syunik.
Vahe Hakobyan is the son of Maxim Hakobyan, director of Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine.

During the meeting the report of the Control Chamber was discussed as well.
The spokesman for the RPA Eduard Sharmazanov refused to reveal details.
He only said that no dismissals have been discussed.



The rape of Syunik can really start now.

[londontsi]

Re: Presidential elections 2008 in Armenia

http://www.panorama.am/en/law/2013/07/10/jamanak1/

Zhamanak: Suren Khachatryan was among shooters


According to Zhamanak daily, former Syunik governor Suren Khachatryan was not asleep during the shooting near his Goris house, and was among the shooters.
The paper adds that Goris residents say that while fathers normally defend their sons, and assume responsibility for their crimes, the former governor, in order to save his skin and position, allowed to arrest his son, but even that did not save him.

[Federate]

Re: Elections in Armenia

Unbelievable...

Proshian Vote Being Contested

PROSHIAN, Armenia—The results of a special mayoral elections held in this village in the Kotayk Region Sunday are being contested, with Vova Sahakian a candidate from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation appealing to the Central Electoral Commission to demand a recount of the vote, which saw him in a close second to the Republican Party of Armenia’s Artur Mouradyan.
Sahakian’s campaign manager Taron Tonoyan told pastinfo.am of the decision to appeal the results, citing a tense environment of fraud and bribery on election day.

Sahakian, himself, did not cite specific instances of the alleged fraud, saying that once the official results are announced “the necessary steps will be taken.”
The village of Proshian was holding special election Sunday to fill the mayoral vacancy left by the April 2 murder of its previous mayor, Hratch Mouradian, who was gunned down in front of the municipal headquarters in the village center.

After the murder, which according to official statements is still under investigation, locals alleged that Mourdian, a Karabakh War veteran and an ARF member, was killed for political motives stemming from disagreements with Republican Party factions in the village.

Mouradian’s family endorsed Sahakian in the election. The latter garnered 1,241 votes to his opponent’s 1,371 votes, according to preliminary results.

Weeks after the murder, the Karabakh War Memorial in the city was desecrated on the day of Mouradian’s 40th memorial. On the same day, pictures of Mouradian were defaced with derogatory statements spray-painted on them.

One news outlet, 7or.am, in covering Sunday’s election observed that the village changed its leadership through murder.

http://asbarez.com/111525/proshian-vote-being-contested/

[Mher]

Re: Elections in Armenia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rZmZ9WPw27I#t=3581

Zaruhi Postanjian is a fool. Way to embarrass your country on an international stage. Not that I'm such a fan of the Republican party, but Zaruhi just showed why there isn't a single legitimate political party in Armenia, and that the heritage party is just as bad as the rest.

In another note, Serj's response to 0:55:30 is wonderfully stated

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Elections in Armenia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...9WPw27I#t=3581

Zaruhi Postanjian is a fool. Way to embarrass your country on an international stage. Not that I'm such a fan of the Republican party, but Zaruhi just showed why there isn't a single legitimate political party in Armenia, and that the heritage party is just as bad as the rest.

In another note, Serj's response to 0:55:30 is wonderfully stated

That would be correct except that in Armenia the policy is don't wash your dirty linen in public or in private. (Maybe persons' with 3000-year old civilisations don't need to wash - eh Mher? Don't worry, thats the last time I'll requote that deleted line of yours ).

But, since everyone seems to believe something smells bad, it seems it is OK to allude to Serj's rumoured fondness for casinos in a sideways way, like here: "Armenia's security is not a casino where you can lose one day and then win the next day," today announced economist, political analyst Andranik Tevanyan...." http://www.a1plus.am/en/politics/2009/10/1/parliament

And unless he is being 100% truthful, that very specific answer given to the 0:55:30 question could become for Sargsyan a Clinton-like "I did not sleep with that woman" response.

[Hakob]

Re: Elections in Armenia

Striking differences of two civilizations

Geography and antagonism have become inherent elements between Armenia and Azerbaijan linking them in a way that it cannot do without comparisons. In this regard it is intolerable to ignore such an important event like the presidential elections, especially when both Armenia and Azerbaijan have held it in the current year.

Elections in Armenia were not perfect, everyone understands that, however in constructional and juridical sense they were so well organized and with high quality that no comparisons may be made between our and the so called elections held in Azerbaijan. A lot of factors and parameters may be brought to support the above said. However we will bring some of them. None of the political forces in Armenia has been persecuted. They have all been free to participate in the elections, while in Azerbaijan many are exiled from the country and a group of social and political activists (more than 100 according to the western organizations) are in jails. Rustam Ibrahibekov’s case is worth mentioning in this context. The latter as a single opposition candidate was getting ready for opposing Ilham Aliyev, however the CEC of Azerbaijan rejected his candidacy at the last moment.

The differences are obvious in regard of the resources: If in Armenia various political forces have more or less equal resources (administrative, intellectual, financial, political and media), in Azerbaijan all of this is under the control of one force and this force is in the President’s Residency. Shortly, from the viewpoint of electoral process and its result the elections held in Armenia and Azerbaijan are incomparable. Instead, the attitude of the international community and the reaction of the administration are fit to be compared.
The behavior of the international community is obvious for both countries. The factor of political interest is surely not ignored. However the international community wants to see in two countries progress in democracy, human rights and social development in general.

The elections in this regard are the best opportunity to assess it, and that’s why observing missions are sent to these countries and process assessment is carried out. In the case of Armenia the result of the assessment was mainly positive; however some deficiencies were noted too. As for Azerbaijan it was noted that those were not elections.

There is an essential factor here to be mentioned. As a rule, OSCE PA and the Council of Europe sent a short-term observation missions to member countries. These groups mainly consist of MPs, i.e. politicians. Usually these missions join the ODIHR and give a joint assessment. It has been this way in case of Armenia and all other countries. As for Azerbaijan the MP’s had made separate statements in a style of “God bless Ilham” in the same time contradicting the ODIHR assessments.

The emotional expressions of Bulgarian and Macedonian MPs do not turn the Azerbaijani “Disneyland” into elections. However, it is obvious that the European values gradually degrade under the influence of oil and caviar. This, naturally, is the problem of Europe and not Azerbaijan. Europe will lose its grace if it keeps on going in this way. Anyway, it is also obvious that the elections held in Armenia and Azerbaijan are incomparable also in regard of assessment of international observers.

In order to conclude the parallels we are only left to compare the official reactions of the two countries concerning the assessments of the elections. To keep the parity I suggest comparing the statements of the heads of the presidents’ staff of the two countries. In both cases they suggest the approach of the administration.

The head of the President’s staff of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan had stated: “The reports were very close to reality and to the elections held in Armenia. This speaks about the fact that different and sometimes even competing observation missions have recorded the same result.

In some cases the observed problems and the assessments coincide. They are mainly the same, because the government, the RA authorities have done everything depending on them to push the elections forward by one more step in this process. I am saying one step, because the democracy and elections, as a very significant component of it, have no border after which there is nothing left to change or to do. Thus this was an important one step forward. The formulation of OSCE/ODIHR report saying that the elections were held by special attention paid towards preservation of the fundamental freedoms sounded so dear to me. This is a very important assessment as the main aim of the elections is protection of fundamental freedoms. The rest of the shortcomings may be corrected and we will work on them over time,” Vigen Sargsyan has noted.

Armenia not only admitted the assessment of the observers but also agreed to cooperate and to correct the existing drawbacks as well as improving the process. While Azerbaijan was getting ready for elections, the Armenian president reaffirmed at PACE this approach and informed about the existence of a corresponding working group.

Here what Vigen Sargsyan’s Azerbaijani counterpart Ramiz Mehtiyev have stated in connection with the ODIHR report:

“According to our sources the election report draft which lacks any positive episode has been prepared in the Warsaw based office of that organization. It should be noted that such deceits are aimed at flaring up tension and provoking negative processes in the Azerbaijani society. This means that some observers have been prepared to give negative assessment to the elections in advance. We can only make a guess what could the real purpose for such hostile attitude be.”

Ramiz Mehtiyev in his statement has also accused the U.S., and has noted that ODIHR is dependent on Washington. “That institution is not an independent organization at all, it cannot operate by itself. OSCE works by looking at the USA. Keeping in mind that previously the OSCE had given a non-objectiv, biased assessment, we were against of inviting them to Azerbaijan during the presidential elections. However, the Azerbaijani side invited the OSCE/ODIHR taking into consideration the factor of U.S. council. The comparison of the reports of U.S. State department and that of OSCE/ODIHR showed that these reports were twins. This is the case of obvious trust abuse.”

No comments, as they say. We are only left to wait and to see how the international community will react on Azerbaijan’s demarche, for Mahtiyev has not only accused Washington of trust abuse but also of “violating the rights of the U.S. citizens.” As the imposing politician has called for not giving a way to emotions and not getting tempted by the U.S. friendship, it is expected that soon Azerbaijan will turn its back to the progressive world.

Author, Armen Minasyan

Source: Panorama.am

[Eddo211]

Re: Elections in Armenia

Azerbaijan civilization??