Friday, February 12 2016 10:06

 ODIHR/OSCE report on Constitutional referendum testifies to the fact that Serzh Sargsyan's Constitution did not gather necessary number of votes, member of New Armenia front Andreas Ghukasyan stated during public discussions held on Liberty Square on February 12. 

"According to this report, ruling Republican party of Armenia has lost, as it was not able to ensure even turnout of voters, due to which it had to rig the referendum results", he noted. At the same time the politician added that law enforcement bodies try to hush up the criminal cases on violations during the referendum and to free the law-breakers. "Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan is not investigating criminal cases on violations. He is not investigating, who coordinated the violators that worked in more than 500 polling stations", he noted. 

At the same time according to him, the authorities try to distract society's attention from the criminal cases, talking about necessity of changes to the Electoral Code and holding fair parliamentary elections in 2017.  "However we do not believe in their tales, as earlier, New Armenia will demand to bring to responsibility the initiators of falsifications and the violators themselves", he stated. 

Ghukasyan also demanded from the international community, particularly from OSCE and Council of Europe, to apply individual sanctions against representatives of the authorities. 

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) presented the final report on the Constitutional referendum in Armenia. As the organization's website informs, "The conduct of the referendum reflected the absence of meaningful actions over the previous three years to address prior OSCE/ODIHR recommendations to improve confidence and public trust in the electoral process, including by improving accuracy of voter lists, preventing misuse of public resources in campaigns, and strengthening safeguards against voting day irregularities as well as the effectiveness of complaint mechanisms and accountability for electoral offences", the experts mention in their report. The experts note that the media environment is perceived to be politicized. A large number of media outlets operate in a limited advertisement market and television remains the main source of information. The safety and security of the work of journalists remains of serious concern.  Campaign regulations for the media are defined by the Referendum Law and the Electoral Code, but lack clarity. Almost all parliamentary factions took advantage of the opportunity to receive free airtime.  Paid advertising airtime was available only for parliamentary factions and was mainly purchased for the "Yes" campaign. The experts also mention that at polling stations where the OSCE/ODIHR RET observed the counting procedure, serious problems included interference and intimidation by proxies of supporters of the "Yes" campaign leading to alteration of the actual vote results.  Citizen observers, opposition groups, and media reported allegations of widespread irregularities, interference and intimidation in the voting and counting process throughout the country.  

To recall, according to the Central Electoral Commission, the turnout made up 50.74% of the 2 mln 566 thsd 998 voters. "63.37% voted for the constitutional amendments and 32.36% said 'no' to the new Constitution. The number of invalid ballots was 53,435. The number of stamped ballots at the district electoral commissions was 1 mln 337 thsd 670," the CEC says.  The opposition considers the referendum results to be rigged.