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RUSSIA'S PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES ARMENIA'S PRESIDENT ON REELECTION
UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT AND MOSCOW'S MAYOR CONGRATULATE ARMENIA'S
PRESIDENT ON REELECTION
MARCH 7. Ukraine's President, Chairman of CIS
Presidential Council Leonid Kuchma and Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov
have congratulated Armenia's President Robert Kocharyan on his
victory in the presidential election in Armenia.
SERIOUS ATTEMPT AT INFRINGING ON DEMOCRACY MADE DURING RUN-OFF
ELECTION: SDU LEADER
Hayrikyan says that the party has held a survey among 1,455 residents of Yerevan. They were asked two questions: who did you vote for? and do you believe that the election was fair?. Usually the disparity between official reports and surveys makes some 2%. But in the case of the Armenian election, it was catastrophic. Hayrikyan refuses to promulgate the results of the first survey not to escalate tensions. He, however, makes public the answers to the second one. 62% said they do not believe that the election was fair, only 10% of them having voted for Pres.Kocharyan. At the same time Hayrikyan notes that the political fight must end in "a handshake," However, the opposition has already made an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Hayrikyan reminds us that the election of 1991 was also undemocratic.
The only way out of the situation is to create a democratic bloc.
And so Hayrikyan urges all the political forces of Armenia to unite
at the May parliamentary elections.
NEW PARLIAMENT WILL NOT BE OPPOSITIONAL: SERGE SARGSSIAN
MARCH 7. The new Armenian Parliament will not be oppositional, Minister of Defense Serge Sargssian said.
According to him, a testimony to this is the fact that Robert
Kocharian has received over 67% of votes, to a great degree due to
the political forces supportive of him. This means, Sargssian said,
that these parties occupy their stable place on the country's
political scene and have a large electorate. He also stated that no
serious changes are expected in the Armenian Government before the
May 25 parliamentary elections.
HEAD OF ROBERT KOCHARIAN'S ELECTION STAFF SATISFIED WITH RUN-OFF
RESULTS
Commenting on the discrepancies between the conclusions of the European and CIS observers at his news conference, Sargssian pointed out that the CIS observers are better informed of the Armenian mentality and reality. Besides, the notion of democracy in the CIS countries is somewhat different from that in the European countries. Sargssian stressed that after reading the resolution of the OSCE observers one can arrive at a conclusion that they have no claims to 87% of the election commissions, and complaints were received from only 13% of them. "And the negative resolution of the OSCE observers is based on this," he said.
Sargssian stressed that observers must act with the law and it is
desirable that the European observers first lodge their complaints
with Armenia's Foreign Office or with other authorized structures.
"Unfortunately this has not been done," Sargssian said. He also
reported that at many polling stations the European observers thanked
members of election commissions for their exemplary work. However,
later these polling stations were included in the list of the polling
stations where violations were recorded. The Minister also pointed
out that the European observers often complained of the election
commissions from which no complaints lodged by the opposition were
received. In particular, 22 complaints were received from the Syunik
region, and four of them have been considered, the corresponding
polling stations have been re-opened for checking, but no violations
have been revealed. The other complaints are currently under
consideration. Sargssian promised that the authorities will do their
best for the observers to receive answers to their questions.
ONE MORE PARTY FORMED IN ARMENIA
MARCH 7. Constituent session of the newly created party "Consent" took place today at the House of sittings of Armenian government. The new party unites about 5,000 like-minded persons. Nerses Zeynalvandan was elected the chairman of the party during the session. One of the leaders "Consent" - the Minister of Transport and Communication of Armenia Andranik Manukian said that despite the plenty of political parties on the political arena of the country, the creation of a new political force is conditioned on the necessity of struggle against irreconcilability. The republic was the witness of the presidential election, and its participants became its active participants. The society saw what is happening on the political arena, and what the political parties do, splitting the people into several parts and creating an atmosphere of irreconcilable hostility among its several sections. "Just that's why the name of the new political party prompts the orientation of our course", Manukian said.
He also informed that he has ever been a member of the Republican
party of Armenia, and then left its ranks, keeping contacts with that
political force. Now Andranik Manukian hopes for cooperation of the
RPA and Consent. The majority of the members of the new party has
significant experience of political activities.
The congress of the Consent made a decision to take part in the
forthcoming May 25 parliamentary elections in Armenia.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE EXTREMELY WORRIED ABOUT ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS
MARCH 7. Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder and Secretary General Walter Schwimmer today expressed their concern that the Armenian presidential elections fell short of international standards for democratic elections. They considered this to be all the more serious, as free and fair elections are the basis of democracy. ARMINFO was informed in the CE. "It is now of the utmost importance that the administrative and judicial authorities carefully examine electoral complaints and appeals in a transparent and credible manner. This is an essential condition for re-establishing confidence in the electoral process, with a view to the forthcoming legislative elections in May," Walter Schwimmer pointed out. "Following serious irregularities reported after the first round, we made a series of requests to ensure better conduct of the second round. We very much regret that these requests were not met," Peter Schieder stressed. "The full extent of responsibility for, and the impact of, the irregularities are yet to be determined, but it is already clear that they cannot remain without consequences. The issue will be raised in forthcoming meetings at parliamentary and ministerial level", concluded the Council of Europe leaders. HEADLINES OF 7 MARCH
CIS EXPERTS DISCUSS DRAFT DOCUMENTS REGULATING ACTIVITIES OF
COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION
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MARCH 7. President of Russia Vladimir Putin
congratulated today his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan on his
victory in the presidential election in Armenia.
Putin whished Kocharyan further success on the post. "Your victory
has confirmed the Armenian people's firm commitment to democracy and
market reforms, to the good neighbor police and mutually beneficial
cooperation."
Putin highly evaluates Kocharyan's contribution to the enlargement of
traditionally friendly and allied relations between Armenia and
Russia. "I am sure that this policy will be further developed to
bring our peoples even closer."
Putin notes that Russia is very much interested in stability in the
Caucasus and early settlement of the Karabakh conflict. "We are ready
to further promote this process."
MARCH 7. The events which took place during the
presidential run-off election in Armenia were a serious attempt at
infringing on democracy in the country, says the leader of the
Self-Determination union Parouyr Hayrikyan.
MARCH 7. Head of Robert Kocharian's election staff,
minister of Defense of Armenia Serge Sargssian expressed his
satisfaction with the results of the presidential run-off election in
Armenia.
