February 29, 2008

Heritage Statement

The Armenian presidential elections, held on February 19, 2008, became the culmination point for the most severe violations of the law that were ever committed throughout the tenure of the current authorities—violations that, within the short track record of our independent statehood, have turned into sores in the souls of the country’s freedom-loving people.

While carrying out their societal and civic duties on and around election day, numerous Armenian citizens—among them three members of the Heritage Party’s parliamentary group, many more members of election commissions, journalists from independent news media, proxies of opposition candidates, and ordinary voters—became the targets of countless assaults. They were prevented, directly and in a variety of ways, from exercising the most fundamental democratic right of all: the right to participate in the creation of your own government.

The incumbent authorities responded to the people’s post-election resistance—which resisted not individuals or parties, but rather voting fraud and legal violations—by unleashing a deeply prejudiced propaganda through the media, which remain under their control, and subsequently through politically motivated arrests. We confirm, with deep regret, that the number of political prisoners in Armenia has grown at an alarming rate.

Another matter of concern is the fact that, on the day following the elections, the members of the OSCE/PACE observation mission attempted in their turn to legitimize, with a preliminary announcement, the results issued by the Central Election Commission. The announcement was a not-so-quiet endorsement of the corrupted elections promise and the coordinated culture of voting abuse. Naturally, OSCE/PACE deepened the Armenian public’s distrust toward both the electoral process and the international community, which stands complicit with deeply flawed elections for the second year in a row.

Heritage has exerted great efforts to create, by way of legislative improvements, favorable preconditions for conducting free and fair elections, to secure political union and national unity in the preelection season, to endorse the rule of law at the election commissions, and to launch public oversight on the day of the elections. Unfortunately, the authorities, which have violated the rights and abridged the freedoms of Armenian citizens, yet again are attempting to crush their own people.

Heritage hereby demands that the ruling powers put aside their brutalist political agenda and to refrain from the use of force against the peaceful civic gatherings.

During this crucial turning point in Armenia’s history, each and every political force willing to address the national problems and capable of proposing avenues for resolving them with dignity, must join a public dialogue for the sake of the country’s future. In their turn, the ruling authorities should not only tolerate, not only endorse, but also join that dialogue as equal and legitimate partners. They might begin by reaching a just verdict at the Constitutional Court, which has in its possession several petitions filed by the former presidential candidates. Heritage expects the court to examine these petitions in full acknowledgment of its accountability to the nation and to the letter and spirit of the law. The quantity and nature of the election fraud and the numerous other violations that occurred in and nearby the voting precincts on the day of the elections, as well as the shameful incidents that took place while the ballots were being tallied, indubitably bespeak their systemic nature. We are full of hope that an impartial decision by the Constitutional Court would pave for Armenia the way leading to legitimacy, democracy, and a renewed respect for civil rights.