Prosperous Armenia calls on West to monitor post-election developments

Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party has called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and the European Union to monitor the post-election situation in Armenia.

The appeal follows PACE’s assessment of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections, which said voters had a genuine choice among political alternatives and that election day was generally well organized. At the same time, PACE raised concerns including the disenfranchisement of an opposition party’s electorate.

The Prosperous Armenia Party has focused in particular on decisions by Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission concerning several polling stations. PACE said those decisions had significant consequences for the parliamentary representation of Prosperous Armenia.

Prosperous Armenia is urging Western institutions not to limit their involvement to evaluating the elections themselves, but also to monitor subsequent actions and decisions by state institutions that, according to the party, could affect Armenia’s domestic political landscape.

By Vafa Guliyeva