YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. There is no accepted standard in terms of how long the campaign of political parties ahead of elections should last, Ambassador Urszula Gacek, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission said in Yerevan, when asked by a reporter whether 12 days are enough for campaigning.

She said that the process is organized differently in different countries.

“We know that the official campaigning will last 12 days in Armenia, but there are also certain events which aren’t banned to be organized before the launch of campaigning,” she said.

According to Gacek, the observation mission chooses polling stations for monitoring randomly.

Observers from OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) are in Armenia to observe the upcoming December 9 early election of parliament.

Ambassador Urszula Gacek, Head of the ODIHR election observation mission, told a news conference in Yerevan that they don’t have any preliminary stance regarding the results of the election.

“We are here not to criticize, but to observe,” she said. “We don’t have any political agenda, we are here to observe the electoral process. We will follow the same standards that we use during elections in any OSCE country,” Gacek said.

Gacek said that the observation mission is aware that the parliament has not adopted the electoral code amendments. “We will deal with the law that is currently in force. Our team doesn’t have any predictions. We will work with open ears and eyes and we will document whatever we will see,” she said.

Gacek said that 13 observers have arrived to Armenia Sunday, and another 24 long-term observers will join them.

“Few days ahead of the election another 250 observers will join us and will participate in the electoral process,” she said, adding that representatives of the OSCE PA, Council of Europe and MEPs will also be included in the mission.

“All of us will together build a big international observation mission,” the ambassador said.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigned on October 16 to trigger the process of disbanding the parliament.

Pashinyan took office after massive protests in April forced president-turned PM Serzh Sargsyan to resign. But Sargsyan’s Republican Party (HHK) still has most seats in the 105-seat parliament. Since taking office, Nikol Pashinyan has numerously said that the incumbent parliament doesn’t represent the people and that early elections should take place as soon as possible.

In accordance to the Constitution, when a Prime Minister resigns the parliament must elect a new PM within two weeks. Lawmakers deliberately failed to elect a new PM as a formality in order to pave the way for dissolution.

The last round took place on November 1 and the parliament was dissolved by virtue of law.

Later on the same day, President Armen Sarkissian signed an order on dissolving the parliament and calling early elections on December 9.

The parliament will function until the new parliament is elected.

The government is formally a caretaker government until a new government is formed after the election.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan