U.S. DOESN'T SUPPORT "STREET" CHANGE OF POWER

Support A1+!

"The elections in 2007 and 2008 provide a golden opportunity for Armenia to reaffirm its course towards democracy and overcome some of the problems of the past," US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans stated during a press conference in Yerevan today.

During the event J. Evans presented a package of measures the US is proposing to help Armenia to have free and fair elections in 2007-2008. It is particularly important for Armenia's future that the elections – the legislative in 2007 and the presidential in 2008 – be free and fair, transparent and perceived as such by the international community and most importantly by Armenian voters themselves, the American diplomat said.

In his words, the U.S. government has marked out some priorities to support, these being the electoral rolls, organization of the election, awareness of the voters, etc.

"It is nothing new that we support free and fair elections and that refers to all types of elections," he stated. In J. Evans' words, the package includes ideas that the US has regarding assistance to Armenia in holding free and fair elections. "We have previewed this package of assistance measures at very high levels of the Government of Armenia and the response has been positive," he reported. This package of measures has been approved by the US Congress and funded at a level of about $6 million. Congressional elections will be held in the US in 2006 and "we think we can also use that event as a way of sharing experience with election officials, political party representatives, representatives of the media of Armenia," he added

Mr. Evans also reminded that the U.S. government never supported “street” change of power. “We welcome evolutional changes taking place at the ballot-boxes,” the Ambassador noted.