By transparency of elections Armenia exceeded even several CIS countries: CIS observation mission

“Armenia’s experience should be studied in CIS,” Sergey Lebedev, head of CIS observation mission, told reporters today, giving his assessment to parliamentary elections in Armenia held yesterday.

Lededev stated that CIS observation mission, comprised of 8 representatives of CIS countries, arrived in Armenia upon invitation of Armenia’s authorities from March 14 and had the opportunity and time to follow the whole process.

“Prior to that, our experts followed preparation works online and through media outlets, got acquainted with new Electoral Code. We want to state that there were innovations in the Electoral Code and they were applied for the first time in CIS space, thus not only we, but many observers were curiously waiting how those innovations will be manifested in this process. Our mission comprised 172 observers—MPs, diplomats, CEC members, experts, who implemented observation in Armenia’s all polling stations and regions,” Lebedev said.

In his words those innovations, of course made election process more open and transparent.

“Elections were held in a peaceful, calm, organized atmosphere, and innovations in Armenian Electoral Code contributed to quality improvement. Our Armenian partners exceeded even several Western countries with election openness and transparency regarding how they should be held. This experience will be studied in CIS area and I don’t exclude that experience may become a precedent,” the speaker said.

By Araks Martirosyan