YEREVAN. – The delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CoE) called upon Armenia’s political parties to actively participate in the country’s democratization. 

“In connection with the conduct of these [local self-government] elections [in Armenia] in compliance with international standards, we express our moderate satisfaction conditioned by the absence of engagement by political parties [in these elections],” the CoE observation mission’s chief Henry Feral stated.  

As a result of monitoring these elections that were held in Armenia’s nine regions on September 9 and 23, the Congress recorded that the electoral processes were serious and peaceful, with a sufficient degree of participation. Also, the observers did not record any marked election fraud.      

Notwithstanding this, the delegation registered that the political parties’ participation in these elections was at a low level, and it expressed a view that the parties do not give the necessary importance to local governance and democratization.    

In addition, the Congress urged all civil society representatives to be more actively engaged in these processes.  

To note, the fourteen-member delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe—including four representatives from the Committee of the Regions of the European Union—was the sole international observation mission in these elections. The mission members had also met with Deputy PM and Territorial Administration Minister Armen Gevorgyan; Silvia Zehe, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to Armenia; representatives of foreign diplomatic missions, EU, and OSCE offices in Armenia; civil society members; and media and NGO representatives.