Russia points to violations and pressure on opposition in Armenian elections
The parliamentary elections held in Armenia have become the subject of critical assessments from Russian officials and observers.
In Moscow, they believe that the election campaign took place under conditions of pressure on the opposition, and the voting procedure itself turned out to be overly complicated.
"The elections in Armenia were held in an atmosphere of unprecedented pressure on the opposition and interference from the West," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, TASS reports.
She also noted that Russia intends to build its policy towards Armenia taking into account the real steps of the Armenian leadership. According to Zakharova, Moscow has always been and remains interested in a strong and truly sovereign Armenia.
In her opinion, the voting results clearly demonstrated the deep polarization of Armenian society.
Critical remarks regarding the organization of the elections were also made by member of the Central Election Commission of Russia Lyudmila Markina, who was part of the CIS observer mission.
"The vote counting procedure in the Armenian elections was unreasonably complicated, which is why election commission members got confused when counting votes and compiling protocols," Markina said at a briefing of observers.
According to her, despite the preparatory work carried out and the availability of methodological recommendations, the procedure created an excessive burden on members of election commissions.
At the same time, Markina acknowledged that the procedure itself complied with the Electoral Code of Armenia. In the elections, voters chose one of 18 ballots corresponding to the parties participating in the campaign. The ballot was placed in a separate envelope and sealed with a stamp, and after opening the ballot boxes, each envelope was opened separately, which significantly increased the counting time.
"Despite the extensive preparatory work, election commission members got confused when counting votes and compiling protocols. In our opinion, the procedure was not sufficiently developed," she emphasized.
In addition, Markina reported a case of pressure on CIS mission observers at one of the polling stations.
