Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

The observation mission is implemented with the financial support of the European Union and the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States. Its content is the sole responsibility of the "Direct Democracy" NGO and does not necessarily reflect the views of the GMF.    

The Independent Observer Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance) began monitoring the City Council elections in Gyumri and Parakar communities, held on March 30, even before the official campaign began and also covered the events leading up to the election day with statements and reports. A more detailed analysis of the long-term observation, conclusions on the campaigning of parties and party alliances, pre-election funds and other expenditures, as well as evaluations related to the election administration will be presented in the final report.    

On election day, the Alliance conducted observation in Parakar with 3 mobile teams, and in Gyumri with 6 mobile teams and 2 rapid response teams.  All 16 polling stations in Parakar and 81 out of 82 polling stations in Gyumri were monitored. “Vote Monitor” mobile application created by Commit Global was used to record the observations. 

The opening  meetings of the Precinct Election Commissions (7:00-8:00) were observed in 13 polling stations, and during the voting period the observers visited 97 polling stations of which 50 were visited 2 or more times to respond to alerts or to reassess the situation. The vote count was observed in 9 polling stations.

In Territorial Electoral Commission (TEC) No. 14 serving the Parakar community elections, the submission of results from all 16 polling stations, and in TEC No. 31 serving Gyumri, the submission of results from 40 polling stations were observed.  

A total of 61 violations in 41 polling stations were recorded during the observation period. 

These violations mainly involved proxies, commission members, and voters.

 The polling stations 31/45 and 31/70 in Gyumri, which are associated with Vardan Ghukasyan and Sarik Minasyan, who head the pre-election lists of the Communist Party of Armenia and the Civil Contract party, respectively should be distinctly mentioned. These polling stations stood out due to higher voter turnout, as well as to ongoing violations. 

Although turnout was generally higher in Parakar, the high turnout in Merdzavan, the settlement where Valodya Grigoryan leading the list of “Unity” Alliance is registered, had a significant impact. 

As a pattern, it is necessary to mention the direct correlation between the lack of preparedness of precinct election commission chairmen and violations committed at the polling station. The higher level of preparedness of the Parakar precinct election commissions was noticeable.

In some cases, the lack of knowledge of the commission chairmen hindered the voters' voting, for example, when the chair did not object to the proxy's citation of non-existing regulation, observers were prevented from putting down their assessment in the register, and physical force was exerted on an observer from the “Independent Observer” alliance, who was removed from the polling station without justification.  

Similarly, another problem was a result of poor preparation, which although has no impact on the electoral process itself, directly concerns the Alliance: there were cases when individuals who were not observers from our mission presented themselves as “independent observers” and in one case this was how  their name was registered. In other words, the precinct election commission did not actually check the accreditation documents of the observers. We also find it necessary to record that observers with apparent political affiliations were noticed in Gyumri polling stations. They presented themselves as proxies of one of the participating parties or alliances. In particular, individual observers of the "Hayaqve" reported that they were proxies of the “Mother Armenia” alliance, and an individual observer of the “Progress of Gyumri” NGO, stated about being “...from Levon Barseghyan’s party” (Levon Barseghyan was leading the “European Alliance” party alliance’s candidate list).    

In general, the competence of the observation missions in these elections, the principles of impartiality and political restraint were challenged by those who were conducting observation missions. The Alliance will present its position on this matter  in the final report as well. In many cases, incidents that caused a media frenzy did not contain any violations or were interpreted inaccurately. 

The most outstanding incident during the counting and summarization of voting results was recorded at Gyumri polling station 31/77, where ballots taken out of several voting envelopes bore stamps that did not contain the precinct center number, i.e. they did not correspond to the specified sample, but they were considered valid. In the same polling station, in order to cover up inaccuracies, the commission attempted to forge signatures on the voter list on behalf of 2 voters. Based on these circumstances, we believe that at least a recount of the results should be carried out at polling station 31/77.  

In this context, it is also worth noting that due to a manufacturing issue, the number of stamps allocated to polling station 31/70 was higher than the officially recorded number.

These two cases indicate that we should be concerned about the quality and reliability of stamp production (for the first time since their introduction in 2017).

The recounts expected in the coming days may also reveal the consequences of manipulations or pressure on voters in Gyumri, given the extremely high number of invalid ballots for proportional representation elections amounting to 1.3% (compared to 0.2% in Parakar) and, for example, the presence of identical ballots torn and deemed invalid at polling station 31/77, which was recorded by the Alliance.  

It should be noted that during the pre-election period, the Alliance submitted three crime reports: abuse of power and authority (Article 441 of the Criminal Code), violation of the prohibition on charity during election period (Article 221 of the Criminal Code, two cases), and coercion to participate in the campaign (Article 210, Part 1 of the Criminal Code). The only crime report filed on election day concerned obstruction of an observer's activities (Article 210, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, two cases) and breach of voting secrecy (Article 215, Part 2 of the Criminal Code). During the pre-election campaign period, the Alliance also submitted applications for administrative violations related to participation in the campaign by a person who did not have the right to (Article 40.8, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), misuse of administrative resources (Article 40.8, Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), campaigning on the day before and on the day of voting day until 8:00 p.m. (Article 40.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), as well as violation of the procedure for processing personal data (Article 189.17, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).   

In this context, we consider it necessary to mention that on March 27 and March 30 the law enforcement bodies arrested electoral subjects as persons of interest involved in the scope of the investigated cases regarding the violation of the prohibition on election bribery and charity. The Alliance believes that law enforcement bodies should combat electoral crimes and strive to minimize interference in the electoral process and eliminate a selective approach towards political powers.  

It is necessary to emphasize that the nature and number of violations recorded by the Independent Observer during the short-term observation, as well as those made available through the media, gives the Independent Observer Alliance a basis to record that the voting results in Gyumri generally reflect the will of voters. However, in Gyumri, cases of illegal influence on the will of voters in the period preceding the voting day were recurrent, and it is impossible to assess their impact.  

The Independent Observer did not record any significant circumstances that cast doubt on the election results in Parakar community. 

The “Independent Observer” alliance will continue to monitor the criminal proceedings initiated against the team members of the political forces participating in the elections during the pre-election period and on the voting day, the follow up on the reports submitted by the “Independent Observer” that have not yet been investigated, as well as the process and results of the recounts․ It is also planned to examine the declared and otherwise identified financing of political forces.

“Independent Observer” public alliance, represented by:

“Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - Vanadzor,

“Union of Informed Citizens” NGO and

“Direct Democracy” NGO