There must be no repeat of the mass arrests that marred Armenia’s recent presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. Armenia’s parliamentary elections are slated to take place May 25. (Briefing Paper)
In a 24-page briefing paper released today, Human Rights Watch documents the arbitrary arrest of hundreds of opposition activists during the presidential elections, the abuse of the Soviet-era Code of Administrative Offenses to justify the arrests, and the disabling impact the arrests had on the opposition’s campaign. Human Rights Watch also called for urgent reform of Armenia’s flawed administrative justice system.
“The Armenian authorities use the outdated code on punishing public order misdemeanors as a tool of political repression,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. “This weekend’s elections will be a test of their will to stop this practice.”
More than a hundred opposition activists were given prison sentences of up to fifteen days in February and March under the code, for attending, or allegedly misbehaving at, rallies that the authorities arbitrarily deemed “unauthorized.” Police denied them access to counsel, and judges tried them in closed, cursory hearings at which defendants were denied attorneys, the opportunity to present evidence, and their right to appeal.
In March, the Council of Europe reiterated its call for reform of the code, and condemned the administrative detentions as “a misuse of law.” On April 16, the Armenian Constitutional Court declared the arrests unlawful, and recognized the impact they had on the election.
The Council of Justice, a judicial oversight body headed by President Robert Kocharian, rejected the court’s instruction to review the conduct of judges who had issued the administrative detention sentences. In an April 23 resolution condemned by a prominent Armenian rights group as “ordered up” by the authorities, another oversight body, the Council of Court Chairmen, concluded that the administrative detention sentences had been, “on the whole, legal and well-grounded.”
“The authorities appear determined to retain an administrative detention option for the forthcoming elections, and that’s deeply troubling,” said Andersen.
Background on the Elections:
Armenian citizens are going to the polls to elect parliamentary deputies to the 131-member National Assembly, and to vote on a referendum on proposed constitutional amendments. Seventy-five parliamentary mandates are to be apportioned among those parties and electoral blocs that garner more than 5 percent support in a party list contest. Fifty-six mandates will be determined in single-member constituencies, in a one-round majoritarian system.
The contest closely follows the presidential elections, won by the incumbent, President Robert Kocharian in a March 5 runoff against Stepan Demirchian. In that election, widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation and irregularities in tabulation marred the poll.
The opposition disputed the result and staged a series of protest rallies for several weeks afterward. Demirchian filed a complaint on the election results to the Constitutional Court, which on April 16 issued a ruling leaving the election results unchanged, but upholding many constituent parts of the complaint. Recognizing the controversy stirred by the presidential elections, the court also recommended that the government hold a national “referendum of confidence” within one year. President Kocharian has announced his refusal to do so.
Following the presidential elections, several parties supporting Demirchian formed an opposition bloc, called Arturutiun (Justice), to contest the party list vote in the parliamentary election. Demirchian has declared an intention of winning sufficient mandates to launch impeachment proceedings against President Kocharian in the new parliament. The National Unity Party of Artashes Geghamian, who placed third in the first round of the presidential election, is running on its own for the national party list contest. Increasingly, these two opposition forces have traded verbal attacks, as they vie for the anti-government vote.
The parliamentary election campaign has also brought out tensions between the Republican Party and Dashnaktsutiun (the Dashnak Party). Although they jointly constitute the government, and both supported President Kocharian’s re-election, they appear to be campaigning against each other – each striving to augment their influence in government at the expense of the other.
The political parties are thinly represented in the contest for single-member majoritarian constituencies, where powerful local businessmen tend to dominate.
