Opposition: OSCE/ODIHR report on May 6 elections “heavy blow=?UTF-8?B?4oCdIA==?=for Armenia

Armenia's main opposition bloc has issued a statement, describing the final report on the May 6 parliamentary elections by the largest Western monitoring group as "a heavy blow to the image of Armenia."

In its final report published earlier this week the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) again avoided concluding whether the Armenian elections were democratic.

While praising the election campaign as "competitive, vibrant and largely peaceful" and noting "unbiased news coverage of contestants", the mission criticized the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and other pro-government forces over "misuse of administrative resources". It also gave more weight to opposition allegations of vote buying, accusing the RPA and its then coalition partner, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), of violating legal provisions that ban election contenders from providing goods and services to voters.  Read more... (207 words)

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