“It’s Your Choice” NGO’s PRELIMINARY STATEMENT on observation mission of the February 19, 2008, presidential election in Armenia

The observers of the It’s Your Choice (IYC), a non-governmental domestic election monitoring organization, monitored the February 19 presidential election in all 1923 polling stations of Armenia.

A day prior to the voting day the IYC monitored the sessions of electoral commissions and other relevant procedures held that day.

On the Election Day the IYC monitored the activities of electoral commissions, legality of voting and ballot counting, environment inside and outside polling stations, and expression of the voters’ free will.

As a result of the observation of the presidential election of 2008, the It’s Your Choice observed some tension and incidents which occurred during the voting process. According to our estimation, the tension was stimulated by the environment of intolerance dominating the entire official campaign period as well as impermissible methods of electoral campaigning irrespective of the principles of democratic elections, which were also emphasized in the IYC pre-election report.

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