YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–President Robert Kocharian met Wednesday with representatives of the OSCE Election Observation Mission–Mikolai Vulchanov and Eugenio Polizzi.
The president pointed out that the observers’ activities are useful in developing democratic traditions in Armenia.
The OSCE observers regarded the parliamentary elections in Armenia as serious progress–due to which Armenia is approaching European standards. According to the observers–there are still certain concerns over the inaccuracies in the voter lists as well as technical and organizational problems.
President Kocharian agreed that the election process and–in particular–the Electoral Law–need improvement. According to Kocharian–all the drawbacks and omissions will be taken into account–and relevant measures will be taken.
As for the voter lists–the president pointed out that it is ten years since the census was conducted in the country–and it is natural that such problems should have arisen. However–under the current Electoral Law–both citizens and proxies could apply to relevant bodies for the voter lists to be corrected 35 days before the elections. The president assured that all the violations will be investigated and those guilty will be punished. He expressed the opinion that if drastic measures are not taken now–the same problems may arise during the November elections of local government.