Tuesday, February 14 2017 16:39

ArmInfo.France and Armenia are on the verge of elections, the results of may lead to serious changes, said during a press conference in Yerevan the French  Ambassador Jean-Francois Charpemtier on February 14. 

"Everything depends on the results of elections. It is hard to draw  parallels between Armenia and France as our states have different  political systems. Armenia held institutional changes and transits to  a parliamentary form of government, meanwhile France remained  faithful to presidential form. To elect the President will be hard.  The attention of International Community will be fixed on the  processes of the last Sunday of April", noted the Diplomat.

Speaking about the implementation of cameras at polling stations in  Armenia, the Diplomat expressed confidence that that step has a  purpose of increasing the trust of voter to elections in the Republic  so that Armenian voter could vote free and independently. "Maybe  that's why, EU after thoughts decided to support Armenia and  allocated $7mln for this issue. We all wish that the elections were  conducted at the best possible. $7mln is a serious amount showing the  willingness, hope and even demands for the best conducted elections",  noted the Diplomat. At the same time he informed that France in the  framework of mutual cooperation did not consider expedient to  allocate funds on the issue. However, Charpentier recalled that 18%  of funds of French taxpayers are directed to EU, therefore France has  allocate about $1mln to this project.

The Parliamentary election in Armenia is scheduled on April 2nd 2017.  According to Armenian CEC decision the official preliminary campaign  launches on March 5th and finish on 31st. The election will be held  from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm on April 2. Preliminary results will be  announced till 20:00 April 3rd. These will be the first elections  after constitutional reforms of 2015 providing transition to a  parliamentary form of government.

To recall, the implementation of cameras in all polling stations is  fixed in the new Electoral Code which was adopted through agreement  achieved between the opposition and government. Nevertheless, The  Minister, Head of Government Staff David Harutyunyan did not exclude  that there may appear no cameras in polling stations during the  upcoming parliamentary elections as there is no organization found  which could do the programming and installation of technical control.