STATEMENT
On Numerous Violations Recorded During the December 6, 2015 Referendum on Amendments to the RA Constitution
We, the representatives of the Armenian National Platform (ANP) of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, express our deep frustration regarding numerous violations recorded during the preparation, the conduct and the vote counting of December 6 Referendum on Amendments to the RA Constitution.
We assert, that the authorities resorted to all possible leverages of influencing the outcome of the voting – use of administrative resources, vote buying, instruction of voters, pressure and violence exerted against opposition members of electoral commissions, proxies, observers and journalists, ballot box stuffing, voting for absent and dead citizens, as well as multiple voting by the same citizens, stealing of ballot boxes and voter registers, etc.In those polling stations, where the observers, proxies and commission members from opposition forces managed to prevent the electoral violations, the turnout did not exceed 30-35%. This vividly manifests that the turnout recorded by the Central Electoral Committee (CEC) is a result of electoral fraud.
We alert that the work of many ANP members engaged on the voting day in polling stations as observers, journalists, proxies or commission members was obstructed by the authorities’ representatives of electoral commissions and district thugs. Hrayr Manukyan, ANP member, delegate to CSF Kyiv Annual Assembly was subjected to physical violence. All this took place in the presence of law enforcement agencies and by their complete inaction.
Armenian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum declares that the process of Referendum on Amendments to the RA Constitution did not comply with democratic principles and the registered results cannot reflect the free will of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
We assert that electoral fraud significantly affected the results registered by CEC.
We demand that
- The Central Electoral Committee nullifies the results of December 6 Referendum;
- The Republic of Armenia law enforcement agencies subject to liability the organizers and the direct implementers of massive electoral fraud;
- The European Union institutions incorporate the fulfillment of the above-mentioned demands in the list of preconditions on the negotiations over the framework agreement, launched on December 7.
EaP CSF Armenian National Platform
December 9, 2015
