US embassy cable - 05YEREVAN2081

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 002081 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, EUR/ACE, DRL 
PLEASE PASS USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, AM 
SUBJECT: LOCAL OBSERVERS CITE MAJOR INFRACTIONS, STOP SHORT 
OF CALLING REFERENDUM RESULTS INVALID 
 
REF: YEREVAN 2074 
 
Classified By: Amb. John M. Evans for reasons 1.4 (b,d). 
 
1. (C) It's Your Choice (IYC), Armenia's largest election 
observation NGO (funded in part by the USG), announced during 
a November 29 press conference that there were major 
infractions during the recent referendum on constitutional 
amendments that had "serious impacts on the results."  They 
stopped short, however, of saying that the November 27 
referendum results were invalid or that the amendments had 
not been adopted as a result of the voting.  Harut 
Hmbardzumyan, Director of It's Your Choice, said that 
observers were present for at least part of the day on 
November 27 in 1,300 polling stations.  He listed ballot 
stuffing, open voting and intimidation of observers as some 
of the worst infractions.  Hmbardzumyan blasted both the GOAM 
for "grossly inflated numbers" and the opposition for 
"exaggerating the low turnout."  IYC would not estimate how 
many voters in fact showed up at the polls for the referendum 
but said that anecdotal evidence in at least ten polling 
stations suggested that election officials had inflated the 
figures by 300-400 percent.  IYC gave us a 12-page summary of 
its findings following the press conference detailing the 
major violations it observed. 
 
2. (C) IYC was extremely critical of the Council of Europe's 
(CoE) statement on the election.  Hmbardzumyan called into 
question the validity of the report given the small number of 
delegates the CoE sent to Armenia to observe the referendum. 
He made special note of local press reports that the CoE 
delegation was divided in its opinion on the voting and that 
the CoE statement diverged from comments made by individual 
members during their November 28 press conference.  With the 
exception of print media, IYC told us that participation by 
media was less that it had expected.  Only four local 
television stations (and none of the government stations) 
covered the IYC press conference. 
 
3. (C) Comment:  We were disappointed by the turnout during 
IYC's press conference and will be carefully watching media 
coverage of its findings over the next few days.  Notably 
absent from the event was Armenia TV, part of the media group 
funded by an American-Armenian who earlier pledged that his 
station would be the standard for "balanced coverage" of the 
referendum.  By criticizing both the GOAM and opposition 
final numbers on the referendum as well as the CoE's 
statement, IYC is not going to have many enthusiastic 
supporters here in Yerevan for its final report. 
Nevertheless, as the observer organization with the largest 
coverage of polling places on November 27 and the most 
experience with election monitoring, IYC is still our best 
source for first-hand information regarding the integrity of 
the vote. 
EVANS