Following an invitation from Armenia's Foreign Ministry, ODIHR established an election observation mission on 25 April to monitor the parliamentary elections on 25 May.

Headed by Ambassador Robert Barry of the United States, the mission consisted of 28 election experts and long-term observers from 17 OSCE participating States based in Yerevan and seven other regional centres.

On election day, the mission was joined by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Together, they deployed 180 observers from 25 OSCE participating States to monitor election-day proceedings.

According to the mission's final report: "The 25 May 2003 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Armenia marked an improvement over the 2003 presidential election in the campaign and media coverage, but fell short of international standards for democratic elections in a number of key respects, in particular the counting and tabulation of votes.

"The improvements mirrored a similar development during the 1998 presidential and 1999 parliamentary elections. The political leadership of the country made efforts to discourage violations, but perpetrators were again not held accountable. The authorities must end this atmosphere of impunity to give a clear sign of determination to meet their international commitments for democratic elections."