Statement on Presidential elections in Armenia

28 February, 2013

ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆԻ ՀԱՆՐԱՊԵՏՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՊԱՏՎԻՐԱԿՈՒԹՅՈՒՆ
DELEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE

Statement
On Presidential elections in Armenia
delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 942nd Meeting of the OSCE
Permanent Council
February 28, 2013

Mr. Chairman,

We would like to thank the European Union, United States, Russian Federation, Belarus and Turkey for their close attention to the Presidential elections in Armenia, which took place on February 18, 2013. We took note of the statements and their content will be duly conveyed to the Armenian authorities.

We would like to seize this opportunity to present the outcomes of the elections according to which the incumbent President, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan has been re-elected by gaining more than 58 percent of the votes. Mr Raffi Hovhanissyan, the leader of the opposition Heritage party came second in the race accumulating more than 36 percent of votes.

We are glad to note that the international partners promptly reacted to the invitation to monitor the elections. This time there were 629 observers from 10 international organizations including those from the OSCE/ODHIR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the PACE, the European Parliament, the CIS and the CIS Parliamentary Assembly.

The Armenian Government conducted the Presidential elections in an open and transparent manner through close cooperation with international partners including OSCE/ODHIR. From the very beginning the Armenian authorities made it clear that Armenia aimed to ensure significant progress towards conducting elections in line with international standards, including the OSCE commitments. Having successfully met this task, we would like to thank the international observers and particularly those who are members of the OSCE delegations for their efforts in assisting Armenia to continue the progress towards fully applying standards of free and fair elections.

According to our preliminary assessment, this progress was well manifested in a number of important areas such as administrating elections and ensuring all fundamental freedoms throughout the whole cycle of elections. The equal access to media for all candidates-regardless their political standing- ensured transparency and fairness of electoral process and allow voters to fully realize their right to vote.

We are glad to note that our initial assessments on the achieved progress are largely shared in the statement of the preliminary findings and conclusions of the International Election Observation Mission. We are also pleased to note that the conclusions of various international observers were not significantly varying from each other which is a good indication for the quality of the elections as well as sincere efforts made by international observation missions irrespective of adhering to different methodologies.

However, we have noticed that there were two different reports from two OSCE bodies. Different assessments in those reports do not send a clear message to the international community on the ability of the OSCE to speak on one voice when it comes to the core business of this organization. We sincerely hope that all of us will spare no efforts in restoring both trust as well as close cooperation among the OSCE bodies in order to continue to be relevant in setting standards in the OSCE region and beyond.

The concerns that the Presidential elections would not be as competitive as previous Parliamentary elections have been pronounced in the beginning of the electoral process and reflected in some reports of the international observers. But we have also noticed that this view has been generally revised in the preliminary findings and conclusion of international elections observations mission given the outcomes of the elections. The active participation of the population including civil society organizations in the whole cycle of elections indicated that the Armenian Government managed to create a conducive environment for further development of vibrant and pluralistic society.

Our international partners underlined certain deficiencies of the electoral process. As it was the case of the previous Parliamentary elections, the Armenian authorities will carefully assess them and take clear measures to address well-grounded concerns.

In conclusion, I would like to assure that Armenia will continue its close cooperation with all our international partners to achieve common goals of democratization and greater respect of human rights.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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