YEREVAN (A.W.)—Speaking to reporters after meeting with members of the Venice Commission and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Parliamentary Faction Secretary and newly appointed Deputy Chairman of Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Aghvan Vardanyan shared his party’s observations on the draft electoral code. According to Vardanyan, the code calls for the opposition to occupy a third of parliamentary seats.
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– Limiting the number of proxies and limiting their oversight functions clearly makes the new electoral code not better but worse than the previous one. It is obvious that the authorities are NOT looking to have free and fair elections. Rather, they are trying to “improve” the electoral code so it can be easier for them to commit fraud, and more difficult for observers to catch them cheating.
– Continuing not to publicize who voted is again the single largest source of fraud.
These authorities can never be even close to being elected without massive fraud. Obviously they must do everything in their power to assure they can repeat the fraud and continue ruling and plundering.
As disappointing as Dashnaks joining the ruling regime may be, it is a little encouraging that they are making some attempts to make the electoral fraud proof. Of course, this could be just a public show. We will have to see how sincere they are, and how much influence they yield upon their senior coalition partners.