Sasna Tsrer party: Political force that wants to work with Russia has come to Armenia

December 4, 2018 By administrator

Now a [political] force has come to Armenia, the Sasna Tsrer, who wants to work with Russia; but with pride, maintaining clear, negotiating, discussing; and Russia will respect.

Political scientist Stepan Grigoryan, who is second on the electoral list of Sasna Tsrer party, on Tuesday noted the aforementioned during their talk with voters in Tsovagyugh village, and within the framework of their campaign rallies for Sunday’s snap parliamentary election in Armenia.

Grigoryan stressed that that although Sasna Tsrer has not yet entered the next parliament, Russia already takes the existence of this political force into consideration.

“Why was it that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said, ‘let’s move’ the December 6?” he asked, and responded himself. “Since at the CSTO session [on that day], they would have rejected what Armenia wanted [selecting its representative as the next CSTO Secretary General]; that’s not a big secret. Putin thought, “If I reject, [Armenia’s Acting PM] Nikol Pashinyan’s positions will worsen. But Nikol Pashinyan is better for us than the Sasna Tsrer; its position is tougher.’”

Grigoryan added that the Sasna Tsrer party respects the people’s vote, and it aims to oversee ministers and provincial governors that they realize that they are servants of the people.

OSCE/ODIHR interim report on Armenia upcoming election: Concerns about intolerant, inflammatory rhetoric

November 30, 2018 By administrator

According to the report, the media in Armenia are diverse, but many outlets are perceived as politically affiliated, including the public television. In addition to the broadcast media, social networks are significant platforms for political information. Facebook, in particular, has become a significant platform for political information and debate. But the public TV, financed by the state budget, continues to be perceived as having a pro-government editorial policy.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), which will conduct an observation mission during the snap parliamentary election that will be conducted in Armenia on December 9, has issued a respective interim report.

As per the report, the elections are administered by the Central Election Commission (CEC), 38 Territorial Election Commissions (TECs), and 2,010 Precinct Election Commissions (PECs). No concerns were raised so far about the confidence in the CEC and TECs.

According to the report, preliminary lists have been posted for public scrutiny with a total of 2,577,112 registered voters. By law, after elections, the CEC will scan and publish all signed voter lists and post them on its website. A number of ODIHR Election Observation Mission (EOM) interlocutors, however, expressed concerns about privacy of citizens’ data.

The report noted that all contestants met the 25-percent gender quota. No concerns were raised about the candidate registration process.

It is noted that the election campaign officially starts on 26 November, but early campaigning is not prohibited. Party interlocutors expressed confidence to the ODIHR EOM about the possibility to campaign freely, but some raised concerns about potential abuse of state resources, vote-buying and pressure on voters, especially in rural areas. Majority of ODIHR EOM interlocutors voiced concerns about intolerant and inflammatory rhetoric, particularly online.

As per the report, campaigning by government officials while performing their official duties is prohibited. Several political parties claimed in the media and to the ODIHR EOM that a 19 November event when the acting Prime Minister visited construction sites and attended a town celebration in the Gegharkunik region was an abuse of administrative resources.

While several ODIHR EOM interlocutors noted improvements in media pluralism, some stated that public discourse is not conducive to criticism towards the acting government and, in particular, the acting Prime Minister.

Pre-electoral processes ‘centered around one single person’ in Armenia

November 20, 2018 By administrator

Pre-electoral processes remain centered around one single person in Armenia without prompting changes in the logic typically attributed to the former authorities, according to Larisa Alaverdyan, a former ombudsperson currently acting as the executive director of Against Legal Arbitrariness (a human rights NGO based in Yerevan).

“That creates new types of complications which we have to consider. [Electoral] platforms, unfortunately, will play almost no role,” she told Tert.am on Tuesday.

Alaverdyan expects the active electorate to be essentially driven by personal motives “without any interests in minutia.”

Asked why many accomplished political forces (such as the Heritage party or the Armenian National Congress) were excluded from the recent processes, she attributed the fact to very different goals and objective. “The ANC, with all its political – and to my mind very wrong – approaches ensures its full presence in very different forms – in the person of those who represent [Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s bloc] My Step and the Civil Contract party,” she noted.

As for the Heritage party’s increasingly passive stance on the pre-electoral developments, Alaverdyan, a former opposition MP of that political team, said they didn’t apparently manage to mobilize their potential or “do rebranding” after their leader Raffi Hovhannisyan’s defeat in the 2013 parliamentary election.

The former ombudsperson said she expects the outcome of the December 9 election to be “essentially heavy”. “The majority is going to be literally overwhelming to force the minority to be ready, in a way, to speak about patriotism and act in support of the [‘Velvet] Revolution’. That’s the picture we are going to have,” she added.

Pashinyan calling for live debate, After Wally Sarkeesian criticizing election without Opposition and Debate, “Video”

November 10, 2018 By administrator

Pashinyan calls for live debates, After Wally Sarkeesian criticising election Opposition and Debate,, see the video

Opinion: Armenian Election: Armenia went from bribery, corruption Election to silencing the opposition Election and no debate.

YEREVAN. – Early parliamentary election has to pave wave for a tradition of holding live election debates, acting PM Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook.

He believes that the leaders of all parties have to participate in the live debates, Pashinyan wrote.