PACE report: Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections gave voters genuine political choice, were generally well organized

The parliamentary elections held in Armenia on June 7 gave voters a genuine choice between political alternatives and were generally well organized, the PACE observation delegation said in its report.

Election day was orderly and calm, and the process was assessed positively in the vast majority of polling stations observed by the international election observation mission, according to the report.

At the same time, the report said that direct pressure from abroad in the form of escalating trade restrictions and security threats during the campaign, aimed at unduly influencing voters in favor of opposition forces, was observed.

“The Russian Federation’s interference and foreign information operations reached a scale unprecedented in a Council of Europe member State,” it said.

“These elections were marked by foreign interference on a scale described by observers as both 'unprecedented and worrying'. The Russian Federation, in particular, leveraged economic sanctions (embargoes on agricultural products and threatened gas supply revisions) and sharp diplomatic rhetoric to sway the election toward opposition-aligned or anti-government parties.”

The report added that “although far less pronounced and limited largely to declarative statements, the vocal and high-profile endorsements of the ruling party by Western and European officials – including the US President, the French President and senior EU representatives – were also perceived as external interference, albeit without the enormous coercive dimension associated with Russian actions.”