We hope, that technologies of the past won’t be applied: Piotr Świtalski

“The forthcoming fair, good elections will create a positive atmosphere for Armenia-EU further relations,” Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, told at today’s press conference, reflecting to the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia. Touching upon installation of cameras at the polling stations, the Ambassador said that people responsible for the issue are serious discussions, results of which he can’t anticipate.

“However, people—the government, the opposition, we, as donors, attempt to come to a good solution in this dilemma, as it’s big and relates to the forthcoming elections, we have two months, however, as longs as discussions, sincere efforts continue, let’s abstain from public statements,” Świtalski  said. To the question how the results of forthcoming elections will be reflected in Armenia-EU relations, Ambassador Świtalski  replied that the forthcoming elections will be important first and foremost from the perspective of Armenia’s future.

In his words, the Armenian authorities, in particular, Armenia’s president, PM, opposition political parties, have confirmed on different occasions that they highlight forthcoming elections for Armenia’s future developments, i.e. that importance is realized.

“The forthcoming fair, good elections in Armenia will establish a positive atmosphere for further Armenia-EU relations. The EU invested a lot in these elections, not only money, but also political support, thus, we have deep and clear interest in the success of this project,”  Świtalski said. According to the latter, legal process is important for the EU and not results. According to him, the activity of political parties is exclusively an Armenia issue.

“We deal with pure nature of the campaign,” Świtalski said.

According to him, prevention of political corruption is important, on which Armenia’s Election Code includes clear provisions, Armenian legislation as well.

“We hope, that international criteria will be applied. We should pay attention to official launching of the campaign, so that the process was pure, sincere, in compliance with international criteria. Regarding the day of elections we hope that technologies of the past won’t be applied and negative phenomena won’t be recorded due to application of these new measures.

We, as the EU, exert efforts to follow the developments, however, from the perspective of international community there will be long-term and short-term observers, local observers, and I consider we’ll have all necessary tools to have judgements on justice of the process,” the Ambassador said.

He expressed hope, that assurances given to him will become a reality and norms of the Election Code won’t be served for the purpose of restriction of observers’ freedom. “We hope, that on the day of voting there will be no signals that observers to some extent are restricted in their legal activity.

I hope that elections will be held well, however, everything is possible, I always bring the example of democratic states, however, elections are never perfect in democracies, but according to what we’ve heard, I may say that the forthcoming elections will have a new quality, will restore trust of ordinary voters towards justice, election result will reflect people’s will, thus it should be our single purpose—development of a new quality in the electoral process,” Ambassador Świtalski  said.

By Araks Martirosyan