The purpose of “Akanates” is to promote free and fair elections and public, impartial oversight thereof, and legitimacy of electoral processes.
“Akanates” operates independently following the principle of impartiality and refraining from actions that can be interpreted as assistance, propaganda or anti-propaganda in favor or against any party (alliance) or candidate participating in the election. In the context of the December 9, 2018 early RA National Assembly elections, the “Akanates” observer initiative performs long-term and short-term observation mission all over the territory of Armenia.
Long-term observation For the long-term observation mission, the initiative recruited 36 long-term observers in order to observe and assess pre-election and post-election processes in the coverage area of 38 territorial electoral commissions, including election administration, adequacy of voters’ lists, the activities of the electoral head-quarters of candidates and parties (party aliances), pre-election campaigns, abuses of administrative resource, vote recounting, examination of complaints, compliance of actions with the schedule, etc. The observers on site work with electoral commissions, electoral head-quarters of parties/aliances and candiates, representatives of civil society, mass media and citizens. Data collection is done by means of desk research, analysis of open-source on-line data, immediate observation, official inquiries, meetings, interviews and monitoring of media coverage. Observers on site will meet representatives of territorial and district electoral commissions, head-quarters of candidates and parties (party aliances), police, media, observer missions, NGOs, and other participants of the electoral process. To ensure data accuracy and authenticity, the obtained data will be verified through several independent sources.
During long-term and short-term observations, observers will collect quantitative and qualitative data which will be analyzed and summarized in the reports, bulletins, press-releases and visual materials of this initiative. Based on the recorded breaches of electoral process, when expedient, complaints/claims/applications will be compiled and filed with administrative, judicial and law enforcement bodies. Updates on observations will be published on the FaceBook page of the “Akanates” observer initiative, and posted on the websites and FaceBook pages of member organizations.
To read the report, please download the document.
