YEREVAN, Armenia – If I were not present at the council elections that took place on May 31st in Yerevan, I would never think that it can be so different from the elections we had in Karabagh.
And there were many differences starting from organization till the behavior of the commission members and proxies.
While covering Yerevan elections I was very often thinking that it would be better if Karabagh Central Elections Committee members never try to learn from their Armenian colleagues.
IWPR invited two reporters from Karabakh to Yerevan to cover the Yerevan council elections. We were given an opportunity to be present at several precincts and watch the elections process.
Right in the first precinct I attended I witnessed the following; in the 2/6 precinct located at Nor Nork 4 voters were taken to the precinct by buses N123. Voters were also brought to the precincts by cabs. In Avan community mainly it was Taxi service Z cars that took voters to the precincts and buses that also belong to the same service. There were various publications in the newspapers that this taxi service belongs to the member of Republican Party, city council candidate, son of ex vice president Andranik Margaryan, Taron Margaryan.
In another 2/8 precinct that is also located in the suburbs of Yerevan, proxy of the Republican party was checking all the details of the citizens that were coming to vote and according to him he was going to present those details to the Republican party. In more than ten precincts that we attended, during the voting process in front of the voting booths you could see two and in some cases three people standing there.
In 2/4 precinct located in Nor Nork on the elections day, the poster of Artak Avetisyan, a city council candidate from “Prosperous Armenia” Party, was still hanging on the wall of the precinct. But that’s not all: the candidate himself was going from one precinct to another, talking to people who came to vote, greeting hugging them. Earlier I met this candidate at another precinct and when I was shooting the precinct he said; “Don’t shoot my car, that bus looks much better.”
And when I saw him at another 2/4 precinct, Avetisyan asked if we were chasing him. I told him that no, we are reporters and we are going from one precinct to another. He got angry and started to yell saying that my colleague and I do not have the right to take his picture.
“I will take you to the court and they will fire you”,-he said. Then he took out his cell phone and said “Now you tell me, how it feels if I take your photo.”
I mentioned that I was a reporter and that I was doing my job, and that according to the law he doesn’t have a right to be at the precinct on the elections day if he is not voting.
I also witnessed several violations at 8/17 precinct located at Malatia Sebastia community, where I stayed till the end of the counting process. I entered the precinct at about 19:52, where there were only few voters left. At sharp 20:00 o’clock the precinct was closed, but it took around an hour and 20 minutes from the head of the election commission to ask people out from the precinct and as he said “to eat something and then start the counting process.”
Though they started the counting, it was interrupted for four to five times with 20-30 minutes. It was obvious that some members of the commission including the head were concerned about something, and the presence of the reporters was putting even more pressure on them. I could feel that something was wrong.
I should also say that before starting the counting the registrar of the voters was not in the room for some time, but when they understood that I had noticed it they brought it back at that very moment. During the breaks, members of the commission were also leaving the voting room giving the reason that they need to have a cup of coffee or smoke, although they were all smoking during the counting process too. It was obvious that they were discussing something in the next room, in the meantime the representative of Republican Party that was also presented as an observer gave himself the right to count the votes that Republican Party received as well as make noises during the whole counting process.
During one of the breaks I noticed that the votes for the “Rule of Law” Party were not on the table which after a while was brought back to its place with the same party representative. The latter after counting the votes refused to tell the number. The president of the commission whispered the number to him, meanwhile others who counted the votes told the numbers according to the ballots counted by themselves. During the counting process a guy appeared in the room from the Prosperous Armenia party and the he left after a while.
Anyway, the counting process ended with the most absurd conclusion for me; the head of the commission suggested to validate two of the votes that were invalidated since people voted for the Republicans by putting a plus (+) instead of the established check mark. He explained that he wants the votes for this party to be more than those in the other precincts. Even my presence didn’t constrain him and he told me, “Report that it was the decision of the commission.”
And the surprising thing is that even proxies of other parties didn’t say anything including National Armenian Congress who claims to be an opposition.
Of course both for this and for other precinct commission members it would be more desirable not to have any reporters there and anything reported, but I guess they couldn’t block our presence in all precincts just like they did in case of my colleague, who wanted to participate in the counting process at the 07/07 precinct at Malatia Sebastia but was not allowed inside.
According to RA law reporters are allowed to go into the precinct even after 20:00 when the voting is finished. Calls from Central Election Committee to the head of the above mentioned precinct didn’t help; after spending around 30 minutes at the doors of the precinct my colleague was not able to enter the precinct and to watch the counting process.
It is a pity that in Armenia which stands as an example for Nagorno Karabagh elections are being held in such a way. You can never experience “Armenian” way of treating the reporters, proxies, observes and commission members in Karabakh. May be in this case Armenia should learn from Karabakh.
By Anahit Danielyan, a correspondent for “Analitikon” monthly journal and Armenian “Hetk” media in Nagorno Karabakh. She is also a member of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting Cross Caucasus Journalism Network.
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