Vote, Participate and Report Electoral Violations: US Ambassador to Armenia (VIDEO)

The quality of the May 6 parliamentary election in Armenia is “obviously important to the Armenian people and to Armenia’s future, but it is also important for Armenia’s bilateral relations with the United States and other western partners,” says US Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern in his most recent video blog posted on YouTube today (which is in English with Armenian subtitles).

“That’s why we’re interested in observing Armenia’s elections — to inform ourselves about the quality of those elections and to inform our conversations with our government counterparts, political parties, civil society and the media. We also use those assessments to better target our electoral assistance to make sure that that assistance is put to the best possible use. In recent local elections, we saw some strong candidates — that’s a good thing. Political competition is essential for democracy,” he says.

Ambassador Heffern then touches upon the February elections of local self-government bodies, saying that, according to the US Embassy, “the new Electoral Code increased the importance of the party proxies, the observers, the poll workers and journalists to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

“Let me give an example. We saw the opposition candidate campaign was able to use the voter list, which is now released 40 days prior to Election Day, to identity non-resident voters and combat the phantom voter problem. We also saw how the political parties and the journalists, who now have the right to have video cameras in the polling stations, how they were able to use those cameras to contribute to orderly and transparent voting and vote counting.”

The US diplomat then mentions the importance of access to the media ahead of the upcoming elections for all political parties, adding that not only the government and law enforcement officials, but also voters have a responsibility to follow up on any allegations of electoral fraud:

“So those are some good things we saw on Election Day. Free, fair and credible elections require more than a smooth Election Day. In the run-up to the election, there needs to be a level playing field for all parties, which includes access to the media. Also, there shouldn’t be any misuse of administrative resources and certainly no vote buying. Government and law enforcement has the responsibility to follow up on any allegations of electoral violations that they hear.

“Voters have responsibilities too. The first responsibility is of course to vote your conscience. But also if you see something in the pre-election period or on Election Day that doesn’t look right, report it to the authorities and follow up with them to take action.

“Elections require public faith in the electoral process. We are pleased to see that a number of organizations, government agencies and the legislature are taking public awareness campaigns to build public trust in the upcoming elections.

“In closing, I’d like to urge the government, the opposition parties, civil society and journalists to do whatever you can to ensure free, fair and credible elections. We at the Embassy promise to do our part to help where we can.

“Thank you very much,” Ambassador Heffern says, signing off with “Vote, participate and report violations” in Armenian.