US officials optimistic about Armenian parliamentary election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Senior US officials have sounded remarkably optimistic about the conduct of Armenia’s forthcoming parliamentary elections, which President Serzh Sargsyan will try to use as a launch pad for winning a second term in office in 2013, article “Washington Looks Forward to Armenian Parliamentary Election” published in The Jamestown Foundation says.

The election, slated for May 2012, will be the biggest test of Sargsyan’s democratic credentials since the turbulent start to his presidency in April 2008. His administration has made an ambitious pledge to break with the country’s troubled electoral past, and ensure that the 2012 election is the most democratic in its post-Soviet history. Opposition politicians and civil society representatives dismiss these assurances, saying that Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) will seek to retain control over parliament at any cost. That control is essential for the success of the president’s re-election plans.

During a conference in Washington on the South Caucasus on November 28-29, 2011, attended by the author, Eric Rubin, a US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, suggested that the Armenian government is genuinely interested in the freedom and fairness of the polls.

“Going into this election, we are encouraged by what we see,” Rubin said, adding, “we think the government is not just saying all the right things, but we believe it is committed to an open, free and fair process and to a real contest in the elections,” Mr. Rubin said.