Yerevan, 18 February 2013: The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) has directed a delegation consisting of four experts of the EPDE member organisations Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Swedish International Liberal Centre SILC, Sweden, Association GOLOS, Russia and European Exchange, Germany to the Presidential elections on 18 February in Armenia. The delegation was granted accreditation through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on 16 February and conducted observation of election-day in Yerevan and Lori region. The aim of the EPDE delegation’s visit was to get an insight in the election process and to draft recommendations for the further development of civic election observation in Armenia. This Statement is based on the findings of the EPDE delegation to Armenia from 14 - 20 February 2013 and on the observations of EPDE’s Armenian member organisation Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor HCAV. The elections were characterised by a lack of political competition, low-key campaigning and a relatively low presence of partisan election observers in precincts on election-day. This has to be explained with the decision of the three main opposition parties not to nominate their candidates for the Presidential elections and consequently not to deploy their proxies to the election precincts.

Full report is available here