Yesterday the head of the Armenian Democratic Party (ADP), Aram Sargsyan, said in “Pastark” club that he was concerned about the “disorganized environment” before the elections.
“If it is possible to organize “the ring” action on April 12 and beat people, if it is possible to arrest Vardan Malkhasyan and Zhirayr Sefilyan who were dangerous for the government, why don’t they take the necessary actions to detain the organized crime groups?” asks the ADP leader. He assures that Shahen Hovasapyan’s murder and a number of other incidents were organized by criminal groups as “none of the 10 cases have been solved so far. There is no other definition; there are organized criminal groups that are representing the interests of some people.” Concerning the upcoming elections, Aram Sargsyan suggests to create a joint institution for observing the electoral processes.
It is worth mentioning that Artashes Geghamyan has suggested this too. These days it is often said that candidates make mutual understanding agreements on organizing fair elections in precincts. Usually such suggestions are proposed by government representatives, to which many people reply positively. It is very strange that the opposition initially failed to unite “to save the country”, was divided into 20 small parts, and now they are suggesting to create a joint headquarter to monitor the electoral processes. It is clear that even if they found such an institution, it will not operate effectively. It is very strange that this recommendation is proposed by the opposition in the case they have failed to unite and are participating in the elections separately. It seems that the reason of this suggestion is to pretend that they want to unite, as they have failed to do so.
It is also strange that most of the candidates suggesting to make mutual agreements on organizing fair elections are representatives of the authorities. Now let’s try to find out what exactly they are suggesting. They are suggesting to make mutual memorandums on following the law and organizing fair elections based on the law. This is a wonderful aim. Thus, it turns out that they are suggesting to advocate and follow the official rules (the law) with the help of unofficial rules (which they call memorandum). It means that these memorandums have political purposes and don’t tend to stating public control over the process of elections.
The ADP leader has sent a petition letter to CIS and OSCE observers to support the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. The ADP suggests them to send a group of observers to stay at one polling station till the end of the election day and observe all the electoral processes at that polling station, including the vote counting process. Sargsyan believes this will give an opportunity to make sure the elections are fair at least at one polling station and compare the findings and protocols of the given polling station with the other ones for the purpose of finding out the level of possible violations. It is worth mentioning that on February 3 the “Alternative” initiative suggested the same too. Notwithstanding, the international election monitors have not answered Sargsyan’s letter yet, but based on the words of the head of the CIS election monitoring mission, Vladimir Rushailo, Sargsyan assumes that “they are already starting to prepare our society for their statement that there have been violations, but that they didn’t influence the outcome of the elections.” This is exactly what they said concerning the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2003. Sargsyan says that if they do the same this time again, they will reserve a pedestal for themselves in history.