OSCE/ODIHR opens observation mission for early parliamentary elections in Armenia
YEREVAN, 13 November 2018 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission for the 9 December early parliamentary elections in Armenia. The mission’s deployment follows an official invitation from the country’s authorities.
The mission is led by Ambassador Urszula Gacek and consists of a core team of 13 election experts, based in Yerevan, and 24 long-term observers to be deployed in teams of two across the country. In addition, ODIHR will request that OSCE participating States provide 250 short-term observers to monitor proceedings on election day.
The mission will observe the elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. Observers will closely monitor the candidate registration process, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant governmental bodies, election-related legislation and its implementation, and the resolution of election-related disputes. As part of the observation, the mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.
In the course of its observation, the mission will meet with representatives of state authorities, the election administration and political parties, as well as with individual candidates. It will also meet with representatives of civil society, the media and the international community.
On election day, observers will monitor the opening of polling stations, voting, the counting of ballots and the tabulation of results. For election day, the ODIHR election observation mission will join efforts with delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.
A statement of preliminary findings and conclusions will be issued on the day after the elections. A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be published approximately two months after the completion of the electoral process.