Alisa Gevorgyan
“Radiolur”
The delegation of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe presented today a preliminary report on the local self-government elections inArmeniaheld on September 9 and 23. According to the assessment of the European observers, the elections mostly complied with international standards. At the same time, they expressed regret over the low level of involvement of the political forces in the elections.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe was the only international body to observe the local self-government elections inArmenia.
“The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is pleased to stress the serious and peaceful process of voting and the sufficient level of participation in the elections that took place on September 9 and 23, 2012. The observers did not register major violations,” head of the observation mission Henry Feral told reporters today.
However, the delegation regrets the low level of involvement of the political forces in the elections. Accepting that this might be conditioned by the scarcity of financial and human resources, the delegation considers, however, that political parties do not attach due importance to the governance and democracy on the local level.
“The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities calls on the political parties to actively participate in the process of consolidation of democracy inArmenia. We express our moderate satisfaction with the conduct of the elections connected with the lack of involvement of political parties on the local self-government level,” Feral said.
