Harutiun Hambartsumian, IYC Chairperson (center), observes as the PEC Chairperson refuses to accept a written complaint of ballot box stuffing, Shahumian, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

As I said in an earlier post, this column in going to change from now on. Actually, it should even be on a separate blog hosted on the server of Transparency International in Armenia, but I need to do some tweaking with the Wordpress installation first. Nevertheless, now that events in Yerevan to honour the memory of Hrant Dink have died down, it’s time to get the ball rolling by looking at some of the major players in the election game in Armenia.

First up is Armenia’s own home-grown independent electoral watchdog, It’s Your Choice — http://www.iyc.am.

As Armenia’s largest election monitor, IYC has the unique role of reporting on the success of the election officials enforcing the electoral code. IYC has trained and deployed election monitors since its inception in 1997. In addition, IYC’s well-documented reports have established IYC as the most recognized domestic monitoring organization.

IYC monitored Parliamentary by-elections due to vacancies in 1997 and 2004, Parliamentary elections in 1999, 2003, Elections of Local Self Governing Bodies in 1999 and 2002 and Presidential Elections in 2003. IYC provides written reports of the monitors findings and provides them to the media and other interested parties.

Because the parliamentary elections are considered so important, It’s Your Choice (IYC) will field monitors at every single polling station throughout the country, and their reports are already considered to provide the fullest overview of whether elections here meet international standards. So far, the organization says that they have not, but admits the international community will be stricter this time round.

My interview with It’s Your Choice Chairman, Harut Hambartsumyan, is now available.

Many international organizations, banks and countries tell the Armenian Government that elections must pass in a better way than the last in order for assistance to continue. However, if the elections are as bad as they have been in the past, they will not provide financial assistance and so on. Therefore, if a domestic observation organization holds a press conference detailing the whole list of violations, those organizations will know.

[…]

As these elections are very important and we already have funding from USAID, we will have observers in ever single precinct. We will have around 2,000 monitors for 1,900 precincts.

The interview was very interesting and not least with regards to recent amendments to the electoral code. For example, soldiers will now have their documents stamped to prevent multiple voting, and more rights have been afforded to proxies. However, there have been some rather misleading media reports suggesting that the authorities are delaying inviting international observers to monitor the elections.

As a representative from the European Union confirmed to me yesterday, there is nothing to be concerned about yet. Hambartsumyan also feels the same. Inviting international observers closer to the date of the elections is normal.

Generally, international observers are coming 40 days before elections are held. The President has not signed a date for the elections although we know it will be 12 May, but it’s not yet official. However, it’s also normal because by the Constitution it must happen by May. He has time because we have February, March and even April.

[…] Of course, there’s no problem, because by law the campaign shouldn’t start earlier than 40 days anyway. Maybe there’s the need for an extra 10 days for an organization to establish itself and sort out an office and so on, but it’s quite enough.

That’s not to say that Hambartsumyan is so relaxed about everything. The quorum required for decisions made by the Electoral Commissions has now been reduced from the seven out of nine members it previously was. Given the way elections are held in some precincts, with members of the PEC’s mysteriously absent because of threats or bribes as they have been in the past, the danger of what could happen is very real.

You know, they are saying that if the opposition is boycotting elections they are taking their members off electoral commissions. If they do that then the commissions can not make any decision now that Orinats Yerkir is in opposition. That is why they say the old quorum of seven is not needed, but this is not right. At least make the quorum five and not seven. However, under the new electoral code, even the head of the election commission can make a decision on their own if nobody else is there. This is very dangerous.

Anyway, this is the start of what was going to be my major blogging project for the parliamentary elections conducted through Transparency International in cooperation with the major players in civil society in Armenia. That also included It’s Your Choice, and not least because while they are known in Armenia, virtually nobody in the Diaspora has heard of them. Thankfully, however, they have a web site.

It’s Your Choice is a nonpartisan NGO and the largest domestic election monitor in Armenia with 4,000 volunteers, and offices and chapters in all Marzes and 12 communities of Yerevan. IYC’s mission is to

# Promote transparent elections and democratic processes in Armenia;
# Establish true self-governance and accountability within the government;
# Encourage citizen participation in community governance; and
# Provide objective, reliable and timely information to Armenian voters.

So, another point of ths blog-based monitor was not only to communicate the views and opinions of various actors within civil society on the elections, but to also highlight what they are doing, not only to the public here, but also to the Diaspora and the international community. In a sense, civil society — as well as the elections themselves — would be transparent. At the same time, activists, citizens and others could engage in discussion and debate through the same medium.

Coincidently, I was planning to work on this project with Zarchka at Life Around Me who just happens to be the Erebuni Youth Coordinator for It’s Your Choice. Not only would she have been responsible for the Armenian language section of the proposed blog, but she would have posted her own experiences. She’s even posted about her monitoring of elections in Ukraine in the past, but now she’s turned her attention to Armenia and IYC’s voter education that started today.

Part of IYC’s plans for the coming elections makes the Voter Education. During this education voters are given a list of questions regarding mainly their role in the voting process. They are being explained the new law, the importance of their vote, then mock election is being conducted. In the end the voters again answer to the same list of questions, which is done for checking the productiveness of the education.

Such a voter education took place today for a group of Erebuni community voters consisted of 45 people aged 20 to 70. As I was among the organizers interesting it was to observe the awareness and readiness of people for the upcoming elections. Interestingly when you start talking about elections, the first reaction of people is hesitative, as they suppose that you may be from a political party. But soon, being introduced to IYC and its activities they become engaged in the educational process willingly, which usually results to a productive process throughout the education.

[…]

While I hoped that some educational adds would be on TV with the come of elections, I stressed on her other concern. Of course IYC is having Voter Education in all the communities and regions, but logically it is not possible to involve everyone. So the most important factor here is that after acquiring the knowledge on elections every participant passes it on to their families, relatives, neighbors and friends. As the final questionnaires showed, the voters present at the education completely digested the given information and they could pretty well enlighten their acquaintances with what was discussed during the education.

[…]

All in all, the impression is that while we are discussing the upcoming Parliamentary Elections here, the population, whose voice is supposed to be the most crucial for the results, is either not informed or not interested. As I quote a woman who is working at one of the universities in Yerevan and who came up to me with a question, “Uh, I know nothing about elections. Are these the Parliamentary or the Presidential ones?.”, I get assured once more that voter education is more than necessary.

In partnership with Transparency International, It’s Your Choice, the Armenian News Network — Groong, as well as others we will try our best to provide an almost perfect fusion of complete transparency in the election process and civil society’s activities, as well as hopefully engage both our readership in discussion on key issues that will affect the future course of Armenia.

All materials including articles and interviews are freely available for publication as long as the original source is credited.

I also think that it will set an important precedent for introducing the power, flexibility and appeal of blogs to civil society as well as facilitate accountability in the media, transparency in political processes and the NGO sector, and to encourage discussion and debate in Armenia and the Diaspora. Certainly, blogs can do more for that than any physical or online publication. Plus, they are also transparent.

Regardless, my interview with the Chairman of It’s Your Choice, Harut Hambartsumyan, is available here, and Zarchka’s post on today’s IYC voter education is here. It’s Your Choice has a web site here. I also posted about the work of It’s Your Choice during the 2005 Referendum to amend the Constitution here, here, here and here.