Armenia this week
Karabakh election seen as victory for pro-establishment parties
Preliminary results published on-line by the Nagorno Karabakh’s Central Election Committee give the ruling Democratic Party (AZhK) twelve seats in the newly-elected 33-member Parliament, with ten seats going to the recently established Free Motherland Party (AHK), three to the Bloc of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) and the Movement 88 political parties, and the remaining eight seats to candidates unaffiliated with political parties.
The new parliament was elected through a mixed majoritarian and proportional system, with 22 seats filled through direct voting for individual candidates in electoral districts and 11 proportionally shared by parties and blocs that received over ten and fifteen percent of the total vote, respectively. With over 22,000 votes in its favor (over 37 percent of all), AZhK won five of the 11 proportional seats. AHK with close to 16,000 votes (27 percent) and the Dashnaktsutiun-Movement 88 Bloc with 14,500 votes (24 percent) each won three proportional seats. AZhK, AHK and non-partisan candidates dominated majoritarian races.
In majoritarian races, Stepanakert’s first electoral district had one of the closest contests anywhere in Karabakh, with non-party businessman Armen Abgarian collecting 558 votes and edging out three tough challengers, including one of AHK leaders, Professor Arpat Avanesian with 539 votes, Armenakan Party’s incumbent MP Artur Sargsian with 526 votes and one of HHD leaders, former Education Minister Armen Sargsian with 457 votes. Abgarian is a former army officer and close associate of then Karabakh Defense Minister Samvel Babayan.
Election results represent a net loss of seats for the ruling AZhK, which had a 20-seat majority faction in the outgoing parliament. At the same time, the AHK’s success all but assures that President Arkady Ghoukasian will have a largely cooperative majority in parliament despite AZhK’s losses. AHK was established by local businessmen and academics, including former Parliament Speaker and 1997 presidential hopeful Artur Tovmasian, and is moderately critical of the current government. The results represent a major upset for the opposition Dashnaktsutiun-Movement 88 Bloc, whose candidates scored important victories during last year’s municipal elections. While the Bloc leaders have complained that their opponents used the benefits of incumbency and business support to rally voters, they did not report specific cases of fraud and admitted that the outcome was also a result of their own campaign’s mistakes.
Western observers praise Karabakh parliamentary poll
Nagorno Karabakh’s June 19 parliamentary election was “conducted freely and transparently,” according to preliminary reports from over 100 observers from more than dozen countries who monitored the poll. Over 75 percent of eligible Karabakhis turned out to elect the republic’s fourth parliament since independence in what became the most tightly contested ballot to date leaving no single party in majority control of the legislature.
A delegation from the U.S.-based Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), comprised of former State Department officials and academics, observed the pre-election campaign and voting in all 22 of Karabakh’s electoral districts. PILPG found that “Nagorno Karabakh has made demonstrable progress in building democracy.” The group also recommended more election staff training and voter education to eliminate technical shortcomings during voting. At a press-conference following the vote, PILPG Executive Director Paul Williams dismissed Azerbaijan’s criticism of the elections and urged Baku instead to focus on its own political shortcomings.
Other observers similarly reported no significant irregularities either during voting or vote count. Jana Hradilkova, a human rights activist from the Czech Republic, described the election conduct as “very free, without any tension.” Zoran Pusić, head of the Croatian Civic Committee for Human Rights, was present during vote count and reported no irregularities, praising Karabakhis for their high sense of civic duty.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian hailed the election as the latest example of the Karabakh people’s determination to democratically decide their own future. The election was also welcomed by Armenia’s political opposition. Parliament members Aram Sargsian and Arshak Sadoyan, both from the opposition Justice (Artarutiun) Bloc, who observed the election, lauded the vote’s conduct.
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