But from now on we can call president of the Central Electoral Committee Garegin Azaryan as the greatest Armenian falsifier after the constitutional amendments referendum which took place on Sunday. The constitutional amendments referendum on Sunday was one of a kind when it comes to the level of electoral bribes and acts. We can not picture the official numbers of participants, according to which, 1,503,567 people had cast their votes during the referendum-65.3% of voters. There were 1,403,430 people who voted “yes” and 80,944 people who voted “no”. While the authorities are happy about these results, the observers from the European Council made some interesting comments about the referendum. Although those comments were not really straightforward, however, the observers also pointed out certain cases of electoral violations. What’s more important is that the international observers do not really believe in the information provided by the CEC, stating that there had been more than 1.5 million voters. They also think that the number of voters in many polls is made up. “The minimum number of voters present at the polls on referendum day did not correspond to the numbers proposed by the electoral committees…In our opinion, 1.5 million does not correspond to reality. Did the number of “yes” voters really exceed 782,000? Yes, and that expressed the will of the people as a whole. Our 16 member team was divided into 8 members and we were assigned to observe 150 polls. We can not provide you with the correct number of participants. Many people have to work together, make analyses so that they can come up with that number that corresponds to the number that we really have. We will make judgments on what we have in one of our future speeches,” said the representatives of the only international organization during a press conference held yesterday. They were the only ones invited as international observers for the referendum. According to them, “there were some cases when the voter’s names and signatures were falsified or added.” As for stamping the ballot after the citizen has cast his or her vote goes strictly against the citizen’s secret voting principle, in accordance with the voting code. They regretted to say that “the Armenian authorities decided to prevent international observers from being present during the referendum. The transparency of the referendum failed when the opposition decided to call back its representatives in the electoral committees.” But despite these announcements, the observers stated that, in general, the referendum expressed the “free will of the voters” and “corresponds to European standards”. Basically, once again we witness the European dual standard. On one hand, they say that they have witnessed many electoral violations and that the results of the CEC are made up; on the other hand, they announce that despite everything, the results of the referendum are real. The evaluations of the European Council today are important in that it is the only international observer and that the council representatives had the opportunity to follow up on the referendum. Their evaluations and comments have a much bigger impact on the world than those of local observers. The observers themselves claim that they did not have the opportunity to visit all polls. They had only been in 150 polls out of the 1966. Judging from this, they can not state a final evaluation. “We had a limited number of observers. We did not go to all the polls. I personally noticed how the number of participating voters did not correspond to the real data in the 06/01 poll. But we are not here to recognize the referendum results as valid or invalid. We leave that up to the Central Electoral Committee of Armenia,” said leader of the delegation Thomas Yirzhan. However, he did add the following: “In the majority of polls, which we have not visited, voting standards corresponded to international standards. Unfortunately, there were serious violations in some polls.” According to the observers, there were many violations in Yerevan, Armavir, Aragatsotn and Tavush.
Due to their dual standards politics, the European observers are periodically criticized by the opposition. When the journalists informed them about that, Lord John Tomilson said: “You are probably referring to “National Unity” political party and the “Justice” alliance. I must say that they did not win in this. They did not do anything for the referendum because they had announced that they were going to boycott the referendum, however, some representatives had taken part as committee members and some had not participated. They have either participated as observers in one poll or have not participated in some polls. I consider that a dual standard. We took part in the referendum in order to help Armenia and it would be good if they took part to help them and the people they represent. We are upset that the opposition did not do anything and that they did not help the committee members. Their presence would help form the international standards.”
P.S. In addition, journalists asked the European Council observers whether or not Armenian president Robert Kocharyan’s open vote went against voting laws: “The international principle and standard claim that nobody has the right to lay hands on the ballot after it has been marked. The stamping procedure is against the standard. We are going to suggest, or rather, propose that nobody lays hands on the ballot after it has been marked during the next elections,” said Thomas Yirzhan. Let’s mention the fact that the press published this message with following title: “Armenia’s Constitutional Amendments Referendum: Corresponds to International Observers but with Serious Violations”.