Observing Armenian elections

On April 2nd Armenian voters enjoyed their fundamental right to vote for a new Parliament. I witnessed the process in my capacity as a Short Term Observer (STO) for the OSCE. Short Term Observation concentrates around election day. Long term observers stay 8 weeks in the country. In my team were people from all over the EU, the US and Russia. All 57 OSCE member states can participate in election observation. Just not the state where the mission takes place. I observed in Armavir province with a team of 10 international monitors. We monitored the elections from opening of the polling station until the results are brought to the territorial election commission. We checked everything from the seal to ballot box, the secrecy of the vote and possible election fraud. We monitored the counting and followed the results being brought in from polling station to territorial election commission. According to the OSCE the elections went smoothly: voters could exercise their fundamental freedoms. However there were also credible observations of vote buying. I observed in 5 polling stations and monitored the incoming voting boxes at night from 23.00 until 7.00. I personally observed a lack of secrecy: voters standing in line would select the voting paper, out of the nine, they wanted to vote and put that visibly on top. No one influenced our work. We were welcomed everywhere. Through excellent briefings and literature all observers knew what the 9 participating parties stood for. Although things went smoothly, improvements are possible: bigger polling stations would be good. There were 28.000 local observers in no more than 2000 polling stations. Many polling stations were overcrowded. In Armenia the scrutiny of identity is better through ID and fingerprint check, and camera's in every polling station. Everyone Can watch the voting process including vote counting online. I have worked with the Armenian diaspora in the Netherlands for more than ten years. Also I have led a parliamentary delegation to Armenia in 2015 and participated in a NATO seminar in Yerevan. In my spare time at the beginning of this mission I was able to give a masterclass to the trade Union of Teachers on ‘Democracy and Human Rights in Education.’ This mission was a crown on my commitment to Armenia. May 13th at 19.00 I will address an audience in Almelo on Armenian politics. Feel free to join us.