Waiting for Election Results
A voter reads her ballot before going to the booth to mark it at a polling station in Arabkir © Onnik Krikorian for EurasiaNet 2007
While we’re all waiting for the results of yesterday’s parliamentary election to be announced, EurasiaNet has posted a story on how polling day went. From moving around various polling stations in Yerevan this is pretty much what I encountered as well.
Incidentally, I was also at the polling station in Noragavit where the polling station was anything but well run, and where the situation was tense. However, all other polling stations appeared calm and well organized compared to past elections.
Amidst varied reports of voting irregularities, parliamentary elections widely seen as a test of democracy for Armenia ended calmly on May 12. The government has hailed the vote as confirmation of its earlier predictions that a fair and free vote would be held. Meanwhile, opposition parties are still considering their next move.
After voting ended at 8pm local time, a public television news presenter called the elections perhaps the best ever held since the 1991 declaration of Armenia’s independence.
A similar view was expressed in the morning by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, as he cast his ballot in downtown Yerevan.
[…]
The CEC has reported a voter turnout figure of 59.4 percent of Armenia’s 2,285, 830 voters, more than nine percentage points higher than during the 2003 parliamentary elections.
However, there is some cause of concern with buses being used to ferry voters to polling stations. This was something that I encountered at a few such stations. There were also reports of beatings and other irregularities although when I arrived at the polling stations reportedly where such incidents took place I saw nothing.
Public transportation was in short supply in Yerevan on Saturday morning; the minibuses that usually fill downtown streets were not to be seen. Meanwhile, vans and buses, and sometimes also taxis, could be seen near polling stations to which opposition members and local observers claim they took voters.
At polling station 12/26 in the Yerevan district of Noragvit, former Armenian ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian told EurasiaNet that voters had been brought in on buses and minibuses to vote, and given green pens to use in marking their ballots for the Republican Party. Alaverdian was a candidate for proportional election for the opposition Heritage Party.
Speaking on television, CEC representatives have so far skeptically assessed frequent reports about special color pens, inaccurate voter lists, carousel voting, and ballot box stuffing.
[…]
Outright vote buying was another frequent charge made by opposition members and local election observers – with blame usually placed on the Republican Party of Armenia and, in some cases, also the pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party, considered the Republican Party’s chief rival.
Some local observers claim that the purchase of votes — with amounts varying from $5 to $20 in dram — occurred even outside polling stations.
Nevertheless, nobody can really say how the election went until the final results are announced and the OSCE/ODIHR mission makes its assessment in a few hours. EurasiaNet has posted some preliminary results on the front of its special election site which raised my eyebrows a little.
However, I will refrain from any further comment until after the OSCE/ODIHR press conference at 2.30pm local time. Until then EurasiaNet’s Dean Cox has a photo story with audio commentary on yesterday here.
Comment by Onnik — May 13, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
Hello,
I’m trying to find the Majoritarian results. So far I’ve been finding some results from here and there and piecing them together. I’m missing results on about 25 constituencies.
Do you you know a website that has publised them already? or a website that will publish them first?
or at least a website which already has most (but not all) of the results.
cheers
Comment by Sasuntsi Anarchist — May 14, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
Is this school No 77 in Arabkir ???
Comment by Sasuntsi Anarchist — May 14, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
Can’t remember the number although I have the Precinct number somewhere in my notes.
Comment by Onnik — May 14, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
about the school: I mean, was it the school in front of the ERAZ factory?
about the Majoritarian results: we’re trying to construct a graphic representation of Armenian map cross-comparative between 2003 and 2007. I thought the complete results would ‘ve been pubvished by now or else they’re in violation of the regulations.
Comment by Sasuntsi Anarchist — May 14, 2007 @ 7:44 pm