The
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which carries
out Election Observation Mission, issued its first interim report on the
presidential election process observed since 10 January.

“This
election will be the first presidential election held under the Electoral Code
adopted in May 2011. The new Code was previously assessed as comprehensive and
generally providing a sound basis for the conduct of democratic elections. At
the same time, there are still areas where it could benefit from improvement”,
says the report, which reflects on the period of 10-16 January.

The
report mainly presents the RA legislation on election, regulations on election
organization and administration, time schedule, nominated candidates, number of
voters and other general information. It also presents the Election Observation
Mission activities.

Let
us note that OSCE/ODIHR carried out an election observation mission during May
2012  parliamentary elections, which
according to the report, “were characterized by a competitive, vibrant and
largely peaceful campaign, which was, however, marked by a low level of
confidence in the integrity of the process”.

“Some
violations of campaign provisions by electoral contestants, including the use
of administrative resources and attempts to limit voters' freedom of choice,
created an unequal playing field and ran counter to OSCE commitments”, says the
report.

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission is
composed of the main team of 13 members based in Yerevan and 24 long-term
observers based throughout the country.

ODIHR
will involve 250 short-term observers from the OSCE countries to observe the
voting process, vote calculation process and compilation of the voting results.

The report in English available

The
report in Armenian (an unofficial translation)