OSCE PA prepares to send election observer mission to Armenia

Some 100 OSCE Parliamentary Assembly parliamentarians and staff from more than 30 countries are set to deploy to Armenia ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections.

This is the twelfth occasion the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has conducted election observation in the country since 1995, the OSCE PA international secretariat said in a press release, according to Armenian media.

Farah Karimi, member of the Dutch Senate and appointed Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, and Jevrosima Pejović, member of the Parliament of Montenegro and head of the PA’s delegation of observers, will jointly open the parliamentary briefing programme on June 5 in Yerevan.

Prior to deployment, Karimi and Pejović released a joint pre-election commentary titled “Armenia votes at geopolitical and democratic crossroads,” outlining historic changes, legal reforms, and domestic polarization influencing the current electoral environment.

The OSCE PA mission will cooperate closely with the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, led by Janez Lenarčič (Slovenia), as well as partner delegations from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), headed by Damien Cottier (Switzerland), and the European Parliament (EP), led by Nathalie Loiseau (France).

Ahead of election day, observers will receive briefings from the Central Election Commission, political parties and alliances, civil society representatives, media, and independent experts.

Following two days of discussions, OSCE parliamentarians will be deployed across Armenia to monitor the electoral process, with their findings contributing to the preliminary conclusions of the international observation mission, to be presented at a joint press conference.

On election day, observers will visit polling stations across various regions to assess voting procedures, vote counting, and the overall conduct of the process. The preliminary findings and conclusions will be presented at a joint press conference in Yerevan on June 8, the day after the vote.

By Jeyhun Aghazada