The United States hopes that the widely anticipated snap parliamentary elections in Armenia will be free and fair, the outgoing U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Richard Mills, said on Tuesday.
“The date for elections is a matter for political parties, the government and the Armenian people to come to a decision,” Mills told a news conference.
“What the U.S. government and, I think, all the friends of Armenia want to see out of these elections is a free, fair and credible process that gives all parties … a chance to fairly participate, and a process that will have credibility with the Armenian people and produce solid multi-party democracy that has a loyal opposition as well as a ruling majority,” he said.
Mills, who had a farewell meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday, added that he is “very encouraged” by his election-related discussions with Armenian government officials and politicians. He praised their “spirit of sitting down and reaching a compromise on what’s the best way to move forward on elections.”
The current Armenian parliament has been widely expected to be dissolved ever since Pashinian-led mass protests brought down this spring the country’s previous government headed by Serzh Sarkisian.
U.S. President Donald Trump praised those protests when he congratulated Pashinian on Armenia’s Independence Day marked on September 21.
“A peaceful, popular movement ushered in a new era in Armenia, and we look forward to working with you to help you execute the will of your people to combat corruption and to establish representative, accountable governance, rule of law buttressed by an independent judiciary, and political and economic competition,” Trump wrote in a congratulatory message.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan gave a largely positive assessment of the conduct of Armenia’s last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. It said “voters were able to freely exercise their right to vote.”
An April 2017 statement by the embassy backed the findings of an OSCE-led monitoring team which said that the elections were “tainted by credible information about vote-buying” and pressure on voters. But it also said that electronic anti-fraud equipment installed in the Armenian polling stations helped to prevent more serious irregularities.
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