Making local election observation count

The sheer number of young Armenians who signed up as local monitors of the parliamentary, presidential and local elections held in the country over the past two years showed beyond a doubt:  there is no shortage of committed people ready to give their time and energy to make their society a better place.

“The most reliable and devoted guys,” said the president of one NGONGO
non-governmental organization, Harmony, of the 400 activists he was training.

Local election observers have a crucial role to play in election observation. Their knowledge of the nuances of the local context is something even the long-term international observers cannot hope to rival.   

But to be taken seriously, they need solid training in election procedures and observation methods and they need to speak with a unified voice.   

The OSCE helped with both, in the large-scale election assistance project funded by the European Union, which the Office in Yerevan implemented over the last two years.  It worked with seven NGOs to provide professional training and together with its international partners it encouraged civil society groups to forge alliances.

Already in the 2012 parliamentary elections, the training proved useful.  When Grigor Davtyan, a recent graduate from the Agrarian University of Armenia, noticed that an undue gathering of persons who had already voted was hindering the voting process in the polling station he was observing in Ararat city, he was able to show the precinct election commission chairperson the regulation in the election code prohibiting such a gathering. The chairperson restored order in the polling station, allowing voting to continue unimpeded.

But the most impressive results were evident at the conclusion of the municipal elections in Yerevan in May of this year. For the first time, all the local observing organizations in Armenia joined forces to cover every polling station in the city and issued a joint observation statement at a press conference attended by important TV stations, online news outlets and press. The statement noted the improvement of transparency in election administration, but also pointed to serious shortcomings. The story was picked up widely in the Armenian media.  

Hovsep Hovhannisyan, a pedagogical student at the University of Vanadzor, was glad he persevered in observing all three elections.  “Monitoring the first round of elections seemed a bit of a patchwork endeavor and left me wondering if we really make a difference. But with all the NGOs working together in the municipal elections, we could feel that we were part of a powerful group with real public impact,” he said.

Elections assistance in numbers