This report contains the observation information from June 7, the start of the pre-election campaign defined by the RA Electoral Code, to June 16, covering the election administration process. The monitoring data include the activities of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), Regional Electoral Commissions, local self-government bodies, campaigning, use of administrative resources, hate speech, etc.
Electoral Commissions
Central Electoral Commission
During the pre-election campaign of the 2021 snap elections to the RA National Assembly, from June 7 to June 16, 2021, the CEC convened six sittings, in three of which issues related to organising the snap elections to the National Assembly were discussed, while three considered the applications by individuals political parties and the motions of the Prosecutor’s Office within the framework of organising the snap elections to the National Assembly. The last three sittings on 11 June and 12 June 12 were not broadcast, and their videos were not been posted on the CEC website, presumably in order to maintain the pre-investigation secret, because motions of the Prosecutor’s Office were considered during the said sittings.
The CEC sittings continued to be held in an atmosphere of consensus and unanimous voting. As previously, no issue was discussed among the members of the Commission, nor any member of the Commission voted against the proposed draft decision.
The launch of a new CEC website is welcome. The general impression is that it is more user-friendly and can effectively ensure the transparency and accountability of electoral processes. A special section on the website is allocated for presenting the activities of the Regional Electoral Commissions (although it does not contain complete information yet). However, it should be noted that much of the information on the site is still presented in PDF format rather than “open data format”, which makes data analysis difficult.
Pursuant to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, political parties (alliances of parties) participating in elections may submit their pre-election programs in an electronic format established by the CEC, for posting on the CEC website2. At the moment only the pre-election programs of four parties participating in the NA elections are published on the website: “Republic”, “Homeland of Armenians”, “Rise” and “National-Democratic Axis”. Given that 12 of the parties and alliances do not have an official website, it can be said that their ideology and programs are not properly accessible to voters.
To read the report, please download the document.
