July 18, 2011 - 15:14 AMT
Heritage: New CEC shows Armenia’s authorities unready for fair elections

Formation of new Central Electoral Commission proved that Armenian authorities are not ready to carry out free and fair elections, according to Armen Martirosyan , Member of Parliament from Heritage Party.

“Promotion of Garegin Azaryan’s nomimee as a member of CEC by Court of Appeal indicates that judicial system does not have minimum independence and is totally dependent on Presidential residence,” Martirosyan told a press conference in Yerevan.

According to him, CEC new staff maintains tendency of negative activity in electoral process. Besides, the Member of Parliament noted that it is a serious challenge for public; people will always oppose authorities’ reluctance to solve political problems in civilized way, namely elections.

Martirosyan called on Armenian public and political forces to combat this phenomenon, so that the oncoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 2012 and 2013 run fairly.

In turn, representative of Heritage party, member of Armenian Bar Association Arshavan Nikoghosyan addressing the Armenian Electoral Code said that positive changes have been made into it. However, the country authorities must make mainframe changes to attain “finally well formed” Electoral Code.