Photo: Members of the election committee count ballots at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Yerevan. Western observers on Sunday said parliamentary elections in Armenia were the fairest yet in the ex-Soviet state, now set to be run by a coalition of parties close to the current government that swept the vote.(AFP/Karen Minasyan)  

Hailed as the first democratic election in Armenia’s 15-year-old independence after breaking up from the Soviet Union, the results of the parliament votes are in:

5 parties have received the number of votes needed to enter the National Assembly. These are the Republican Party of Armenia, the Prosperous Armenia Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party, the Country of Legality Party and the Heritage Party.

Cartoon, showing political party slogans saying “we are the best” in several different ways, by Pavel Jangirov from http://echannel.am/?topic_id=690.

Although pro-government Republicans and Prosperous Armenia party have led the polls, western observers are saying the elections generally met international standards.

They still say there were isolated instances of double voting and falsification of results, but overall it was an improvement from previous undemocratic elections.

Photo: Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan listens to a journalist’s question after casting his ballot during a parliamentary election in Yerevan May 12, 2007. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili (ARMENIA)

A local, foreign-born Armenian blogger served as an observer of the vote and was shocked by the fact that “Everything went so smoothly, I can’t tell you.”

It was parliamentary elections yesterday, and I got the chance, thanks to the “It’s Your Choice” NGO and Transparency International, to be a full-fledged elections observer! Well, me and lots of other people, including a number of Diasporan-Armenians, but I guess I was a bit over-excited, because, honestly, at the end of the day, I think it’s pretty cool…

[…]

Well, it was awfully tiring, but I have to say I was terribly impressed, and felt proud, because, before going in as an observer, I was expecting to see the most khaydarag, utterly ridiculous things as usual, and I was even looking forward to a nice fight with the authorities, but things went so smoothly, it was so clean, so just… I mean, I’ve been hearing reports from elsewhere, and the Lord alone knows what we are to expect in the next few weeks in terms of accusations and rallies, but all I know is, I have not lost my faith in the Armenian people and democracy, as I expected I would.

Meanwhile, it is not too encouraging (at least for me) to see that an oligarch widely known as “stupid” got to the second place with 15.1 percent votes.  It is not impossible that he actually earned the votes, but it kind of shows that the Armenian society is not, how should I say, very different from the rest of the world. I guess if George W. Bush got reelected in America than Dodi Gago could easily get 15.1% in Armenia…

Overall, from my personal conversations to friends and relatives in Armenia I was surprised (in a very nice way) with the high turnout and interest of voters. One cousin, for example, who barely turned 18 went and voted early morning. I don’t care who she voted for, but she still voted! My sister and her husband voted for different political parties, and I felt I lived in utopia when they calmly discussed on the phone why and how they voted for different parties (one opposition; one pro-government) and were not upset with the other’s choice at all. I hope more Armenian women become independent and eventually participate not only in voting, but also in being voted in.

Even my 4 ½-year-old niece was involved in the elections and lobbied, I should note unsuccessfully, her Mom to vote for a particular party that she liked (I am glad she can’t read my blog yet).

I guess we all should be glad that another country in the world is becoming more democratic. Maybe Armenia’s future is much brighter than we think it is. 

I just received an e-mail from my school (University of Colorado at Denver) informing the students that a referendum to increase alternative energy use and other environmental projects on our campus – shared by two other schools – has passed by 96%:

Last week downtown Denver campus students went to the polls to consider an increase in student fees to support the Sustainable Campus Program.

The response was overwhelming, with 96% of UCDHSC (University of Colorado at Denver and Health and Sciences Center) students supporting an increase of $1 per semester each year through 2011. Colleague students at Metro State and the Community College of Denver also voted for the proposal, with 97% and 95% support
respectively.

The program aims to enhance renewable energy programs, including increased purchase of solar and wind power sources, implementation of a comprehensive campus recycling program, increased energy efficiency in buildings, reduced per capita water use and education of our community on ways to become a sustainable campus.

The final steps in this effort include review and approval of the student fee by each of the institutional governing boards.  

I am extremely happy that my first time ever voting in a referendum brought the resulsts that I so wanted. I titled the post “My Three Cents,” because in addition to getting my own back to the voting booth to vote I also (literally) forced two of my classmates – whom I saw on the way – to go together and vote (we had to go to renew the student ID for one of them).

We were ten minutes late to class, but we did the right thing.

An echannel.am column in Armenian by Harut Kbeyan gives some tragic-comedy-style insights to the May 2007 parliamentary elections in Armenia.

A cartoon from another column at echannel.am

Talking about the platform of all participating political parties, Kbeyan writes:

It seems all of the parties have downloaded their campaign platforms from the same website and translated [into Armenian].  The translation has worked ok for some, not so much for others and not at all for other ones.

The columnist is surprised with the fact that the never-ending identical justice platforms of all political parties – social equality, employment, free or affordable health care, improved education, military reforms, fantastic retirement funds – do not include environmental problems.

Although the rest of the promises will most likely stay promises in any case, not talking about the environment means Armenia’s voters are not concerned about the issue.

Ironically, environment was one of the major issues for Armenia’s independent movement in the late 1980s and the early 90s.  And environment may as well become the TOP issue in 2024 – a little too late though – when Armenia will be totally forestless.

The unholy campaign of parliamentarian elections has started on holy Easter in Armenia, writes OneWorld.am.   It is said that the holy father of all Armenians – the catholicos – will be “blessing” one of the unholy political parties headed by an infamous oligarch.

Cartoon via echannel

So what happened to “Give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s, give unto God what is God’s”?  Oh, I guess the Armenian pope can use the 1,706-year-old license of being the head of the first Christian nation and lose the line – if there has been any in the last five years – of mafia and church.  

If you want to stress out and find the response of an ordinary Armenian, though, and if you read Armenian – check this short story out about Armenian elections.