At the 22 August sitting, the Government decided to allocate 33 million 680 thousand drams from the reserve fund to two non-governmental organizations to observe the local self-government elections to be held in Artsakh on 8 September.

16 million 200 thousand drams to the Stepanakert office of the “Union of Informed Citizens”, and 17 million 480 thousand drams to the “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center”.

Ms Lousine Hakobyan, President of “Europe in Law Association” NGO, welcomes the idea, but emphasizes the fact that the decision was made through a non-transparent procedure without a competition. I think the main goal was to award a grant to “Transparency International” given the ties with the government, which includes many members of the government: Lena Nazaryan, Narek Babayan, Arayik Harutyunyan, and Armen Grigoryan. I think favoritism has played a role here, which is the reason why that organization has been given preference.”

The lawyer notes that an open competition should have been announced, organizations with relevant experience should have been invited, and the selection should have been made according to the criteria set in advance by the submitted program.

The mission that is currently being used by the current observation missions was developed by the “Europe in Law Association” NGO, and Sona Ayvazyan, Director of Transparency International, in 2013 simply participated as an observer of the “Europe in Law Association”, Lena Nazaryan and Narek Babayan, also acted as observers. If we were to talk about those who had more experience and ability, then the “Europe in Law Association” would have had more experience in carrying out observation mission there,” she said.

Lousine Hakobyan notes that it was in the interests of the government and those organizations to demand that such a selection be made on the basis of clear criteria through a competitive procedure.

Mr. Artak Kirakosyan, President of the “Civil Society Institute” NGO, welcomes the idea of ​​supporting civil society in Artsakh and conducting an active observation mission during the election period, but considers the selection of NGOs problematic.

“The objective is good, the task is correct, but the construction is sloppy, problematic and can lead to serious problems, and this is a general approach. Nothing prevented to hold a tender. As a result, the same organizations would probably win the tender by 99 percent, but there would be a normal procedure that would not make the same government vulnerable later,” he said.

According to Kirakosyan, such a decision may lead to the fact that if violations are registered during the elections, it will be considered as a position of the Armenian authorities.

“We had that vicious practice when the Youth Foundation was taking money, and then, in their estimation, for a good cause, it was working with the Diaspora, youth camps, but in the end, it turns into such a closed club gathering. I think it is a bad president in the same way as it was in terms of forming an anti-corruption body, and I hope this will be the last such manifestation,” Artak Kirakosyan said.

Tevan Poghoyan, President of the “International Center for Human Development” NGO, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Armenia, notes that back in April, he offered to establish a sovereign fund in Armenia on various occasions, which will contribute to the electoral process in Artsakh in four directions. According to the offer it should:

• Regulate the work of media for both Armenian as well as foreign media, 
• Ensure the participation of Armenian political parties, public and analytical centers in the elections in Artsakh on a competitive basis.
• Assist the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Armenia in cooperating with the Central Electoral Commission of Artsakh for the exchange of experience.
• Ensure the presence of observer organizations in Artsakh.

“After all, our whole goal should be to be able to say that the world knows, is informed, and is covered on the level of free and fair elections in Artsakh. Artsakh has elected its authorities, and just they should represent Artsakh during all the negotiation discussions, but we have one problem for that, it does not matter who is what, but if the surname ending in “yan” does not inspire confidence in Artsakh, they will say, ‘Well, they are your Armenians, they have gone, they have done,'” Tevan Poghosyan said.

According to Tevan Poghosyan, Armenia needed the competition order first.

Iravaban.net tried to talk to the representatives of Transparency International, but the latter mentioned that they were overloaded with issues related to the elections in Artsakh, “some of them are on the way to Artsakh”, and although Daniel Ioannisyan, the founder of the “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO, was not in the country, he answered our questions by phone.

“The suggestion or idea was rather from us, although there were different groups that were more involved in lobbying on this issue. In any case, when discussions in the executive led to the version that this should be done, it was too late, it was just too late, and the executive had a dilemma to do this or not do it at all. The elections are on 8 September, the government made the decision on 22 August, only the next week the money was transferred, while the accreditation deadline of the Artsakh Central Electoral Commission was on 20 August,” he said.

Ioannisyan stressed that the need to carry out such an observation mission in Artsakh and share experience was great and it would be good if the competition also confirmed which organizations should participate. According to Ioannisyan, there are three competent organizations in this issue. “It’s us, Transparency International, and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor office. Two of the three received it, the third, in the person of Vanadzor Helsinki Assembly, did not even apply, they were not even interested, if there was a competition, all this simply would not be.”

It should be noted that Artur Sakunts, the head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office, and Avetik Ishkhanyan, the chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, stated that they did not want to comment on this topic.

Iravaban.net sent a request on the topic to the RA Government and is waiting for an answer. We will inform about the results later.