Citizen Observer Initiative Sees No Improvement in Election Process
April 2, 2017 | 22:30
#Armvote17
#CitizenObserver
Observers of the Citizen Observer Initiative have registered a total of1918 cases of violations between 07:00 to 20:00. These cases are currently being verified.
In particular, the following violations have been registered:
General violations during the day (07:00-20:00)
Total number of violations :471
47 cases of violations of rights of observers, media, proxies and visitors
184 cases ofviolations of technical malfunction
88 cases of presence of unauthorised persons
16 cases of intimidationand violence
136 cases of congregation of people and cars
Preparation (07:00 – 08:00)
Total number of violations :300
49 cases of violation of precinct commission working procedures
163 cases of violation of voting room arrangement protocols
19 cases of presence of campaign materials
8 cases of issues with technical equipment
61 other violations
During the voting process (08:00-20:00)
Total number of violations : 1147
54 cases ofviolation of precinct commission working procedures
121 cases of issues with ID authentication/registration
243 cases of violations of the secrecy of the vote
116 cases of unauthorised persons assisting voters to vote
77 cases of unauthorised movement of ballot papers in/out of precincts
5 cases of promise of bribery
26 cases of campaigning and/or anti-campaigning
178 cases of unauthorised accompaniment of voters
77 cases of multiple voting or attempt and/or voting with other person’s ID
13 cases of violation of right to vote
237 other violations
Total of 648 cases of violations were registered during the preparation, the voting process and general violations.
The 3112 independent and impartial observers of Citizen Observer Initiative have carried out the mission of observation since early morning at 1521 precincts.
According to the received data so far, Citizen Observer Initiativereports the following:
1) supervised, controlled and open voting
2) bribery
3) congregation of people and confusion
4) low quality of precinct commission procedures
5) malfunction of new technical equipment devices
6) passivity of police at precincts
7) complicated voting process
As a result, trust has not been gained among the public towards the electoral process.
The Initiative’s violations map includes entries from the Citizen Observer Initiative, Independent Observer Public Coalition, and the Armenia Helsinki Committee observation missions.
The Initiative will provide its evaluation of the electoral process during a Press Conference to be held on April 3 at 12:00, which will take place at Marriott Armenia Hotel, Ararat Hall.
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Observers Mission is funded by the European Union and co-financed by the National Endowment of Democracy within the 2017 Parliamentary Elections National Observation programme.
The information and views set out in this press release are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.