PACE: Constitutional referendum in Armenia is conditioned by political interests rather than needs of citizens

Baku. 8 December. REPORT.AZ/ Relatively low voter turnout in the constitutional referendum in Armenia shows that this referendum was due to political interests rather than the needs of citizens. Report informs, the statement of the observation of PACE delegation declares.

The statement reads that, the referendum was perceived by many citizens as a means or opportunity for the incumbent president to remain in power after the second and final term.

As for the voting process, the delegation noted with regret the irregularities such as the inaccuracy of the voting lists containing the names of many people residing permanently abroad or even deceased, leading to claims that these identities were usurped by people who then voted several times, allegations of large-scale organized vote buying and carousel voting as well as pressure on voters, the media playing field was once again not a level one and the political parties were not able to fulfil their duties of informing and motivating the public, the misuse of administrative resources by executive bodies, allegations of pressure on, and attempts to corrupt, election officials, shortcomings in the training of precinct election officials, particularly during counting, the lack of mobile voting effectively excluded disabled citizens from the process.