‘We Would Have Been Surprised Had Pashinyan Won Any Election’: US Embassy

US Embassy observers noted “widespread intimidation, low-scale violence, and cases where individuals outside the electoral commissions directed the vote process” in the Jan. 10, 2010 by-election according to a diplomatic cable sent to the US Department of State by then US Charge d’Affaires in Yerevan Joseph Pennington recently published by WikiLeaks.

 

Recall, the by-election, which filled the Yerevan Kentron (“center”) parliamentary seat, was contested by Armenian National Congress (ANC, or HAK in Armenian) senior representative Nikol Pashinyan (pictured) and pro-government candidate Ara Simonyan.

 

“Although we did not directly observe ballot stuffing, Embassy personnel were present at a polling station where the precinct chair appeared to be openly falsifying the vote. There were numerous instances of journalists, local observers, and proxies being evicted from polling places or being obstructed from monitoring the vote… In an election marked by a paltry 24 percent turnout (13,566 out of 55,851 registered voters), Ara Simonyan, the obscure pro-government candidate from the National Unity party, netted approximately 58 percent of the vote, beating out the much better-known Pashinyan, who won 39 percent. Davit Hakobyan, the madcap leader of the Marxist party, received only 2.6 percent,” wrote Pennington.

 

The US diplomat also notes that on Jan. 11, his embassy received a call from Central Electoral Commission Chair Garegin Azaryan wanting to find out their initial reaction to the vote. Pennington notes that Azaryan acknowledged up front that the election had gone “badly” to which the US embassy officials agreed.

 

“Azaryan complained, ‘I know all these problems, but I can’t control what happens’ on Election Day. He blamed the ‘human factor’ for the problems: ‘I see the problems, but I cannot solve them.’ He further lamented that ‘polling place chairpersons do not listen to me.’ When we complained about the media, local observers and opposition proxies being evicted from polling places, or having their activities circumscribed by polling place administration or unidentified individuals, he responded that ‘the media are very provocative’,” reads the cable.

 

“Given the lingering effects of the disputed 2008 presidential election and the authorities’ continuing repression of the opposition, we would have been surprised had Pashinyan won any election. What stretches credulity, however, is that Pashinyan lost so resoundingly to such an obscure figure as Simonyan, who has essentially no name recognition in Armenia’s personality-driven political establishment and does not even hail from any of the three parties of the ruling coalition… A former NDI employee told us that ‘Armenian politics are littered with numerous examples where politically connected, corrupt nobodies beat honest, well-known figures’,” writes Pennington in his comments.

 

Although the election suffered from a low voter turnout, it nevertheless could have been an opportunity for Armenian authorities to show progress in their “flawed electoral processes,” Pennington continues. “Our pre-election entreaties to the authorities to exploit this low-stakes poll to conduct a free and fair poll apparently fell on deaf ears. Some habits here truly die hard, and unfortunately electoral fraud is one, with its main casualty once again the hapless Armenian voter.”