Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

The election campaign of the local government elections in Gyumri and Vanadzor communities of October 2, 2016 covers the period of September 9-30, 2016.

For the first time, the local government bodies in Gyumri and Vanadzor are set up by proportional representation. In Gyumri 10 parties and 1 alliance and in Vanadzor 8 parties nominated themselves for the elections.

The election campaigns in Vanadzor and Gyumri were monitored by 3 and 4 observers, respectively.

Thus, the findings of the local government election campaign in Gyumri and Vanadzor cities suggest as follows:

1. After its official start, the election campaign became more heated and was accompanied by mutual criticism by the parties going so far as anti-propaganda public speeches.
2. The nominated parties were not provided with sustainable equal conditions for election campaign; the Republican Party of Armenia and ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ have obvious advantages.
3. The ruling parties, namely, RPA, ARF and ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ had the greatest opportunities to use public space for election campaign advertisements and meetings, especially in terms of meetings in regional (marz) and community institutions.
4. The financial resources used by the parties during the election campaign were not controllable, even including the payment of the campaign headquarters staff.
5. There are serious concerns over abuse of administrative resources by RPA and ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ in favor of their candidates.

See the full report  here.