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Tuesday 30 September 2008

European election monitors “observing” yet another failed election in Armenia… from downtown restaurant in Yerevan

Intimidations, vote buying, bussing people to the polling stations, physical violence, ballot stuffing, open voting etc. etc. (the latest example)

There is no need to describe elections in Armenia. It’s all the same. It’s failed election. It’s system which fails to provide guarantees that people’s vote counts. It’s more of a criminal story building up in thick chapters than anything to do with local governance, in this particular instance.

As to the European election monitors… no surprise here, another watered down statement which means nothing. The reason? As 168 Zham reports today, you just can’t monitor elections if during its pick hours you are “observing” them from downtown “Central” restaurant/café in Yerevan (see photo). Apparently, our European observers ‘confused’ Central district of Yerevan where a key local election took place last Sunday with the restaurant of same name.

*source of photo - 168 Zham

2 comments:

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

Why should the Europeans care about the elections in Armenia?

Just put yourself in the shoes of a European politician. Armenia has no influence or consequence on anything. To them, monitoring these elections is a vacation at best (hence sitting in a cafe) or an unpleasant business trip (if the weather is bad like in February).

As long as they can get their expense reports approved, they don't care.

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

It' is up to the Armenian citizens to make sure that the elections are clean and they are governed by people hey trust. Relying on the Europeans or some other third party is naive and unproductive.