A. Hovsepyan: “Legal system has a key role in ensuring the legality of the elections”

On March 23, the Office of the Prosecutor General in Armenia hosted a conference at the Congress Hotel on free and fair elections. The conference was organized by the International Center for Human Development with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Armenia.

The purpose of the conference was to clarify and raise awareness about law enforcement’s responsibilities to ensure a free, fair and credible election in Armenia. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, National Assembly Speaker Samvel Nikoyan and Prosecutor General Agvan G. Hovsepyan and U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern, delivered opening remarks at the conference.

The General Prosecutor greeted the participants of the conference and said, “The legal system has a key role in ensuring the legality of the elections by providing the legislative guarantees of the electoral rights of Armenian citizens, revealing election frauds and holding responsible those guilty of election frauds. Preventive measures are effective means of the struggle against the criminality and this conference is aimed at informing the public of the criminal liabilities and penalties in the Criminal Code for those found guilty of election frauds”.

He mentioned that the law enforcement bodies must, first of all, prevent the restriction of election rights, and in case of violations, be consistent in their legal assessments. “The citizen must be confident that his report made on a crime will be properly investigated”. The Prosecutor General spoke of the favorable experience gained from responding to reports made on the elections fraud and informed that for the upcoming parliamentary elections a working group has already been created, which will conduct prosecutorial supervision over the registration and discussion of the reports made on election fraud. The working group will not only conduct supervision over the proper registration and discussion of the written report but will monitor the mass media and discuss the publications on alleged election frauds as well.

In his remarks, Ambassador Heffern urged the Armenian government to investigate all election-related violations: “We welcome the government’s statements about the importance of free, fair and credible elections and its promise to investigate and prosecute election violations. Implementation is key and law enforcement agencies have a critical role to play”.

The Ambassador also stressed the importance of civil society’s efforts to monitor the elections and called on local organizations to work together to hold the government accountable, saying,

The conference also included moderated panel discussions with key law enforcement personnel and civil society representatives. The first panel was moderated by Carel Hofstra from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and focused on the roles and responsibilities of the state agencies in addressing election-related violations. The second panel was moderated by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and included representatives from law enforcement, civil society, media and the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia. Both panels included questions and answer sessions.

The Ambassador explained that the Embassy supports the conference because it helped to clarify and educate the public about the responsibilities of law enforcement under the new electoral code and because it gave civil society a chance to engage with law enforcement in an open, transparent form.