This is how CEC head Garegin Azaryan answered to a journalist’s question yesterday whether “he was going to paint figures during the upcoming elections or not”. The journalists asked the question concerning violating the results of the upcoming elections, to which Garegin Azaryan replied, “I am inviting you to spend all your in the CEC on Election Day, and if you think we are going to “paint” figures, we will “paint” them together”.
The CEC chair says that the CEC will only compare the figures. As for the information and figures they are going to compare, they will be given those figures by Precinct Electoral Commissions (PECs) via computer systems. “The work of the CEC and PECs will not be interfered since the law does not provide such a right. We are going just compile the results of voting in polling stations in the PEC database, which will be displayed on our monitors via the computer system. All we can see that information on our monitors; you can see them too” explained Garegin Azaryan. The CEC chair has only one concern: “What are we going to inform people once three hours? You will see all that information all the time on the monitors and we will not have anything to inform since you will see everything yourselves”. The CEC chair thinks that everyone bears responsibility for organizing and coordinating the elections. One month ago president Kocharyan gave interview to TV companies, in which he tried to forecast the outcome of the upcoming elections. We wander whether the president’s predictions will not influence on the “collation of figures” to be done by the CEC. Concerning this the CEC head said that the president is also a citizen of Armenia and has a right to compare and analyze the information he has and evaluate the possibilities of political powers. The CEC chair asked a question in answer, “do you think what the president said may change your mind?” The journalist replied that he would if he agreed with it, to which the CEC chair said that he would think about it when going to the polling station to vote. The CEC chair said that the elections should be organized better than the previous ones. We wander whether the CEC chair thinks that the elections of 2003 and the Constitutional referendum were organized better than the previous ones. People might have expected what the CEC chair would answer to that question, however we recommend those readers that think the Constitutional referendum was organized in the worst manner and over one million votes were violated to be ready and not to be surprised after reading the answer of the CEC chair. Garegin Azaryan believes that the Constitutional referendum of 2005 was organized better and was more democratic than the previous elections. “We haven’t received any complaints or such letters concerning legitimacy in the CEC, PECs and vote counting” said the CEC chair. Concerning the fact that some political parties are giving agricultural products to voters the CEC chair said that if they did it in pre-election periods, the CEC would interfere and take necessary actions, however they don’t have a right to do anything out of the pre-election campaigning periods. Mr. Azaryan said that the CEC does not have a right to control any organizations. Nevertheless, the CEC can control some things, thus after amending the Electoral Code the opposition may lose its opportunity for political boycott. Members of electoral commissions are responsible for participating in the work of commissions and in case of unexcused absence the law defines penalty for them. Concerning a note that oppositionists say that some CEC members and the CEC chair have violated the law Garegin Azaryan said jokingly, “It is funny. They say such things and later write letters to the CEC chair asking to change some orders. If I thought that you have violated the law, I wouldn’t ask you anything” said Mr. Azaryan and added, “They can bring a case and if the court brings up a decision that I am guilty, I am ready to be punished”. The CEC chair says that the estimations and statements of international observers will be considered objective if they bring concrete examples of violations and relative facts. He said that he started his work as the CEC chair in 2003 by reading their statements and found that some facts and arguments were baseless. Concerning the rumors that the CEC chair orks in favor of “Prosperous Armenia” party Mr. Azaryan said that it was spoken as well that he worked for ARP and other parties as well. “This means that being the CEC chair I do my work better than I could imagine” said Garegin Azaryan and added, “I am not fully satisfied with my work; however I am satisfied with the work that I have done and wih the results that we have now and are going to have after the upcoming elections”.