Experts: Elections in Armenia pointed to problems in law enforcement  and judicial systems

ArmInfo.The early parliamentary elections in Armenia indicated that there are problems  in the judicial and law enforcement systems, where there is a need  for fundamental reforms. A member of the Independent Observer  initiative, human rights activist Artur Sakunts stated this during a  press conference.

In this regard, he noted that it is not observers who should take the  initiative to identify violations and signal them, but the law  enforcement agencies should take appropriate measures. At the same  time, Sakunts also pointed out gaps in the Electoral Code, as a  result of which cases of abuse of administrative resources were  registered during the election campaign. "This suggests that we need  fundamental and qualitative changes in the electoral legislation in  order to exclude such risks in the future," said the member of the  initiative.

Concern, he said, was also caused by inadequate training of  commissioners at polling stations in terms of knowledge of the law,  from members to chairmen. In turn, the representative of the  "Independent Observer" initiative Daniel Ioannisian said that as a  result of monitoring the electoral process, several dozen violations  were revealed, of which 52% concerned the secrecy of the vote. Many  violations, he said, also related to campaigning on election day, in  particular, 37.5% associated with the "Armenia" bloc, 15.7% - with  the "I Have Honor" bloc, 14% - associated with the "Civil Contract".  4.7% - PAP and National Democratic Pole. At the same time, Ioannisian  said that in 10% of polling stations, citizens were not provided with  all 25 ballots, in 10% - ballots were taken out, in 10% of cases  citizens performed their civic duty accompanied by others, and the  latter did not ask the voter for opinion. At a third of the polling  stations, other persons were present when citizens expressed their  will.

He also said that 30 messages were sent to law enforcement agencies,  the lion's share of which related to electoral bribes, and part of  illegal influence on voters. In this context, Ionnisian noted that  the signals about cases of electoral bribes and pressure from  employers were mainly related to the "Armenia" bloc. In particular,  he named the following enterprises in this vein: Gazprom, Zangezur  Copper-Molybdenum Combine, Electric Networks of Armenia and others.  Pressure, according to him, was exerted both in local self-government  bodies and their structures. Signals of abuse of administrative  resources were mainly recorded during the rallies of the Civil  Contract party.

At the same time, it was noted that in 4 polling stations a  discrepancy was registered with the number of voters and the number  of ballots.