OSCE provides additional transparent ballot boxes for Armenia

YEREVAN, 19 May, 2003 - More than 3,400 additional transparent ballot boxes arrived in Armenia over the weekend for use at the upcoming May 25 Parliamentary Elections and Constitutional Referendum. The boxes will be used together with the 2,000 transparent ballot boxes provided earlier by OSCE Office in Yerevan for the presidential elections.

In March, the Office offered to provide the CEC with additional transparent ballot boxes so that multiple boxes could be used for the upcoming parliamentary elections and constitutional referendum. However, the CEC turned down this offer at that time.

The decision to provide additional transparent ballot boxes was a result of extensive discussions with the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) over the last few months. Following the request from the CEC Chairman on 6 May, the OSCE Office has arranged for the additional boxes to be manufactured and delivered to Armenia.

Roy Reeve, Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan praised the decision: "The willingness of the CEC to use multiple transparent ballot boxes for the upcoming elections is welcome and I believe that the use of transparent ballot boxes will contribute to the transparency of the electoral process", he said.

The costs of production, delivery and transportation to regional territorial commissions were made possible by financial contributions from the US Government through the United States Agency for Development and Co-operation (USAID), and the governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.