Electoral Code of Armenia is still being broken the next day of elections. The Code says all the applications on appeal regarding election process are received till 2: 00 PM of the next day of elections in all the polling stations . N 23 election centre of Artashat and N 20 of Ashtarak obviously broke that plank of Law . The doors of the centres were closed since 10:30 AM. When the Opposition representatives...

Second round Preliminary report The Caucasus Media Institute has monitored the qualitative aspect of media coverage of the second round of the 2003 presidential elections in Armenia. Monitoring lasted from January 22 until March 3 and continued on the eve of the Election Day and on Election Day. Conclusions In the second round of elections, mass media once again failed to provide equal conditions...

The pre-election headquarters for Stepan Demirchyan held a press conference yesterday an hour before the voting final. Advocate Ashot Sargssyan informed the journalists that voting process passes through serious irregularities under tense atmosphere. Proxies for Demichyan, opposition members of committees, all those who didn’t allow committing outrages, were beaten. Technologies that were used...

Voters of polling station N 14/324 of Yerevan’s Noragyukh district called us and said that by 19:00 they were stopped from entering the station and told the ballot box is overloaded. Our shooting team came here to see this on site. We saw a group of men standing in front of entrance who believed barred people from entering. We were welcomed “cordially” at the polling station. The chair of the commission told us no serious irregularities...

The chairs of election commissions of polling stations N 0122 and 0119 assure that voting here went off without a hitch. Observer Vardui Grigoryan said, as it became clear, ballot boxes were being stuffed with false ballots at 0119 polling station all day along. Very sophisticated trick was used for doing that. Observers’ attention was shifted from ballot boxes skilfully while ballots were stuffing...

The chair of polling station N 0328 trying to obstruct “Ayb-Fe” news agency’s work forbade its shooting team from entering the station. The news agency correspondent managed to contact Lilit Sedrakyan, the head of Central Election Commission press service. After the CEC interference, the chair of the polling station commission said he provides only 5 minutes to the “Ayb-Fe” group for shooting. These “precious” 5 minutes were immediately...

Defence minister Serge Sargssyan promised the army would not interfere in elections. Open voting was held in Hrazdan. In polling station N 0362/16 of Yerevan, 600 military after voting openly showed their ballots to a man, dressed as civilian, who was believed their commander. Massive vote bribing and wide variety of other illegalities were witnessed in Gavar. In Garni illegalities were committed...

Central Election Commission reports 108 of 1865 polling stations opened. Preliminary data say 69,3 of votes. It looks strange that none voted against both candidates and there is not a single invalid ballot in these polling stations.

“Police behaviour at today’s voting was far more brutal than during the first-round voting. I should state with full responsibility, that today the police not only turned blind eye to election illegalities but also committed them”, says Armen Mkrtchyan, a member of Stepan Demirchyan’s electoral headquarter of Arabkir. “When Demirchyan’s proxies tried to prevent ballot box illegal stuffing and the offenders attacked them, police officers...

AS ALWAYSAll polling stations closed at 20:00 local time. Vote counting started. A1+ TV Company’s shooting teams, as always, were denied entrance despite the permission got from Central Election Commission. A QUIET CONSCIENCE SLEEPS IN THUNDER“Ayb-Fe” news agency learned from bitter experience that overwhelming majority of chairs of polling stations are not familiar with Electoral Code. Many times the “Ayb-Fe” correspondents were denied...

E. Karapetyan, a member of the election commission of polling station N 0004/1, said two cases of hooliganism were placed on record here. Two young men entered the polling station. One of them managed to stuff a stack of ballots while the second was foiled in his attempt to do the same, as some members of the commission bared the offender from stuffing the box. At this very moment they were attacked...

“Obvious campaign is carried out in 0320/14 election centre of Yerevan” , the residents of Noragyugh block of Yerevan voice alarm. The voters say some people come up to them and “asking, threatening” demand to vote for Robert Kocharyan.

STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN: “ELECTIONS TAKE PLACE THROUGH IRREGULARITIES”Today candidate for presidency Stepan Demirchyan voted in the election centre in the school after A. Chekhov with his family. He announced the second round doesn’t differ from the first one, the election process is broken. He also said they receive many calls on alarm, so elections can’t be considered as just. Demirchyan added irregularities are more massive than in 1998. He...

Today is the day of the second round of prezidential elections. The society is to elect its future, to elect for the next generations. Today and only today we must elect to have peaceful and democratic country. Today Armenians are to elect either Stepan Demirchyan or Robert Kocharyan. Today the most important is to elect in good conscience, not to be under pressure and to sell its voice for next...

Armenian People Party held today a press conference in its headquarter. Lawyer Vardan Poghosyan said 3 APP members were taken today in police custody. One of them was released later. Lawyer Ashot Sargssyan said the party was stripped of the seats in election commissions of more than 100 polling stations.He said this fact prompted speculation that the commissions are going to draw false figures during counting.

The heads of observation mission, who have expressed discontent with first round of presidential elections, met today with Artak Sahradyan, the chair of Central Election Commission. After the meeting the observers asked journalists’ questions. Russel Johnston, the head of observation mission of the EU Venice’s committee, said the issues related to the illegalities taken place in the first-round...

The authorities promised repeatedly that those guilty of illegalities taken place during the first round of presidential elections in Armenia should be punished. And now they fulfilled their promise with surprising “impartiality”. Members of a number of Yerevan’s Shengavit district were replaced with other persons. But this replacement is suspicious enough, as those replaced were the opposition...

Polling of the second round of presidential elections in Armenia is scheduled for March 5. Community expects from the authorities free and fair election. It will become clear tomorrow whether the expectations come true. Current authorities are sure that after the first round their rating run high while the opposition activists say even their “black PR” failed to mar the opposition reputation....

Sources in the Administration and Congress have reported to the ANCA that Turkey is aggressively leveraging its role in the planned war on Iraq to pressure U.S. policy-makers to actively oppose recognition of the Armenian Genocide. To stand up against - and overcome - this pressure, Armenian Americans from across the nation are mobilizing at the grassroots level to encourage their U.S. Representatives...

Dashnaktsutyun, Ramkavar Azatakan and Renewed Communist parties’ activists came to the Robert Kocharyan’s rally today. The event participants waved “Let’s work together”, “Aragathsotn with you” and “I like Grand Candy very much” banners. MP Vazgen Khachikyan hosted the event. Dashnak Vahan Hovhannissyan said he intends, within coming 5 years together with Robert Kocharyan, to rid the country of those compatriots who supported...

Residents of Armenia’s different provinces were brought to the capital by force to attend the rally staged by current president Robert Kocharyan. Buses carried whole staffs of many enterprises and factories to provide rally with as many participants as possible and make it crowded. Even the rally participants themselves denounced the rally as “mere imitation”. Hayrusgazard enterprise’s employees confessed they were forced to came here and...

One of the biggest names in the music world, conductor Ohan Duryan, addressed the current president with utmost anger at today’s rally: “Mr. President, you want to rule the country for another 5 years to wreak havoc in it. Have we created free and independent Armenia for making it completely deserted or for turning blind eye to crimes committed to let you manipulate people? All TV channels glorified...

Presidential candidate Stepan Demirchyan is ready to participate in televised debate with his rival Robert Kocharyan, Demirchyan’s press secretary Ruzan Khachatryan said at the news conference held Monday. However, she noted that so called debate offered by state-run Public Television is far from the debate between the two candidates that is very common in civilised countries. “It is joint news conference what is offered to Demirchyan. And he...

100 to 130 thousand people gathered today at Yerevan’s Republic Square to attend the rally convened by the opposition. There were the persons among the rally participants who were brought from provinces by buses for participation in the meeting with Kocharyan, which started at the same time in another site of the capital. Representatives of almost all opposition parties spoke at the rally pledging...