RFE/RL reports that the United States government has approved over $235 million in economic assistance as part of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). However, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has linked the assistance to visible signs of progress towards democracy and good governance, especially after last month’s referendum to amend the constitution. Most observers believe that the referendum was falsified on a level unprecedented even for a former Soviet republic.

“MCC is concerned about the government’s lack of transparency and commitment to open and fair elections in the recent referendum,” its chief executive, John Danilovich, was quoted as saying.

Danilovich conveyed those concerns to President Robert Kocharian on Friday in a letter that was made public by MCC along with its statement. He told Kocharian that the MCC board, which comprises U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, delayed its decision on Armenia’s MCA application last month as a result of “allegations of fraud, electoral mismanagement, mistreatment of individuals from opposition political parties and uneven access to the media.”

The MCC also urged the Armenian government to respect the right to freedom of assembly, access to information from alternative news sources, and “to investigate the latest allegations of electoral fraud and “improve the fairness and transparency of the political and electoral process in Armenia […].” However, in a second news item, RFE/RL also reports that there’s little sign of that happening just yet.

Armenian law-enforcement authorities lack “concrete facts” to prosecute anyone in connection with serious fraud reported during last month’s disputed constitutional referendum, Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian said on Tuesday.

Hovsepian revealed that the only person facing referendum-related criminal prosecution at the moment is a female opposition supporter who allegedly hit a state television reporter during an opposition rally held in the run-up to the November 27 vote.

The article reports that state prosecutors have not received protocols of violations. No wonder. When I accompanied the head of the largest domestic observation NGO, It’s Your Choice, visiting polling stations on the day of the referendum, I saw how the Chairperson of the government-controlled Precinct Election Commission in Shahumian refused to accept one such protocol. In Etchmiadzin, people were literally frightened.

It’s also worth noting that as the General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepian was one of the main figures pushing for the amendments to be passed, perhaps he should examine the possibility that he might have to prosecute himself. Carolann Najarian, the Diasporan philanthropist who was defrauded in Armenia, would probably agree. Business as usual then in Armenia.