ARMENIA: LOCAL ELECTIONS SERIOUSLY FLAWED

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 001731

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, DRL
NSC FOR DAVID MERKEL
USMISSION OSCE FOR KIT TRAUB

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/27/2015
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA: LOCAL ELECTIONS SERIOUSLY FLAWED

REF: YEREVAN 1593

Classified By: CDA A.F. Godfrey for reasons 1.4(b,d).

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) Local election monitors, news media, and our own
employees are among the growing chorus of critics of
"widespread violations" in local Armenian elections,
currently being held across the country on a rolling schedule
from September 18 through October 23. Local elections have
spurred accusations of voting list inaccuracies, police
interference, ballot box stuffing, illegal campaigning, abuse
of proxy rights, and other violations of electoral procedures.

-------------- -
PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN: LOCAL ELECTIONS "NORMAL"
-------------- -


2. (C) During September 25 elections in the "Kentron"
community of Yerevan where President Robert Kocharian and
Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan voted, Kocharian told
reporters that despite some complications with new
requirements for "seals and signatures" local elections are
"normal." In a September 26 press conference, Council of
Europe observers said they noted "fewer violations" than in
past elections, a weak validation of Kocharian's claims.

-------------- -
SOME VOTERS DISAGREE WITH KOCHARIAN'S ANALYSIS
-------------- -


3. (C) Several of Post's local employees complained that
voter lists, which record eligible voters by household,
included as residents of their homes people they did not
know. They said that, in the absence of voting booths,
election commission officials watched them closely as they
voted and prevented them from sealing their ballots. Other
local embassy employees complained that election officials
turned them away from the polls after their names had been
inexplicably removed from their relevant voting list.

-------------- --------------
PARLIAMENT OPENS SESSION: CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ON TAP
-------------- --------------


4. (C) On September 27, Parliament returned in extraordinary
session for hearings on the GOAM Law on Referendums and to
ultimately take up the Council of Europe (CoE) Venice
Commission-approved constitutional amendment package in a
third, and final, pro forma reading. In the opening session,
opposition members continued their boycott-breaking criticism
of the Kocharian Administration (reftel) and cited
"widespread irregularities" in the administration of local
elections as evidence that the GOAM is not committed to a
democratic Armenia with free and fair elections. Parliament
returns on September 28 to continue debating.

-------------- --------------
COMMENT: LOCAL ELECTIONS A LIKELY SIGN OF THINGS TO COME
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Reminiscent of the 2003 presidential and parliamentary
elections and likely a forecast of the November
constitutional amendments referendum (reftel),the local
elections have already spurred accusations of irregularities
from international and domestic elections monitors, news
media, and the public at large. With GOAM support, the USG
is launching a new set of programs aimed at establishing
stronger democratic institutions in Armenia. None of these
programs, however, will have had a chance to change the
environment before the November referendum to change
Armenia's constitution.
GODFREY