It is mentioned that “The 19 February presidential election in the Republic of Armenia was administered mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards.” The international observers add to this sentence, “However, further improvements and commensurate political will are required to address remaining challenges such as: the absence of a clear separation between State and party functions, the lack of public confidence in the electoral process and ensuring equal treatment of election contestants. The conduct of the count did not contribute to reducing an existing suspicion amongst election stakeholders.”

As for the election process, the observers are particularly concerned about the fact that “electoral choices of public-sector employees, a segment of society vulnerable to pressure, can have consequences for individual livelihoods. This questioned the ability of citizens to hold opinions without fear of retribution.”

OSCE/ODIHR also notes that “The needless collection of citizens’ passport data created public anxiety about possible election fraud. This was compounded by the persistence of unsubstantiated allegations of possible vote-buying, lack of secrecy of the vote and impersonation of voters.”

The observers have also registered that “The National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR) did not adequately fulfill its mandate to monitor compliance of the media with legal provisions.”

It is noted in the segment related to the election day that “In isolated cases, serious problems were noted, including: campaigning, attempts to influence voters’ choices, intimidation of voters, “controlled voting”, vote-buying, and transportation of voters from one PS to another.”

“The count was assessed as “bad” or “very bad” in some 16 per cent of PSs visited. Problems noted included: not announcing aloud the number of votes for each candidate, inconsistent determination of valid votes, the use of mobile phones, and the frequent failure to post results protocols publicly,” is noted in the report. The observers have also, “In several PSs visited, reported deliberate falsification of data entered into the protocol.”

OSCE/ODIHR observers have also submitted specific examples. “On 18 February, in the village of Vardablur (TEC 31, Lori region), observers interviewed villagers who confirmed that villagers had been offered AMD 5,000 (EUR 11) to sell their votes. A similar vote-buying scheme was also noted in Bazum (Lori). In the vicinity of a Yerevan PS, observers saw voters receiving money from a man who was ticking entries from a list of names. Few reports indicated possible controlled voting, e.g. military personnel were given pens of different colored ink to mark their ballots. An isolated case of “ballot stuffing” was witnessed at PS 23/24 (Gegharkunik region) where a candidate proxy placed some 15 ballots into the ballot box, after being validated by a PEC member,” is mentioned in the report.

The final conclusion of the OSCE/ODIHR international observer mission will be published later.