Armenia has stepped into a new era of the exercise of electoral rights and electoral processes.
The "Citizen Observer" Initiative (hereinafter: the COI) has contributed significantly to unfolding the essence of domestic election observation and enhancing it to a new level, introducing new domestic election observation standards, promoting public inclusiveness in and raising public awareness of electoral processes, introducing a new culture of protection of electoral rights by engaging in electoral disputes, and, finally, training of observers and lawyers in electoral law and processes.
Taking account of the aforesaid, the COI will continue its efforts in the area of improving electoral legislation as well as the monitoring of electoral processes in a new format also for the snap 2018 parliamentary elections. The monitoring will cover the pre-election period, including the process of elaboration and adoption of electoral legislation, electoral campaign in general, including access to resources, balance of coverage and election financing issues during the pre-election campaign, political competition and its content, the use of administrative resources, the assessment of the legality and effectiveness of the work of observation missions, parties, candidates, their representatives and proxies as well as electoral commissions, the incidents of unlawful interference with electoral rights, the protection of electoral right (tools and efficiency), as well as public oversight issues. Following the monitoring of the snap parliamentary elections to be held on 9 December 2018, the COI will release a final report on the snap 2018 Yerevan Municipality and NA elections, which will include inter alia statistical analysis of the election results. In addition to this, the COI will elaborate and submit comprehensive recommendations on the substantial reform of the legal framework governing elections to the Government and the NA.
Any organization having experience in election observation, election-related statistical analysis, protection of electoral rights and other related fields may take part in the activities implemented by the Citizen Observer Initiative in the process of monitoring of the snap parliamentary elections of 9 December 2018.
The Citizen Observer Initiative currently comprises the non-governmental organisations "Europe in Law Association", "Helsinki Association", "Policy Forum Armenia".
The Citizen Observer Initiative was established in 2013 in a view to overseeing the national and local elections in Armenia, as well as the conformity thereof with the domestic legislation and the international democratic standards. The website of The Citizen Observer Initiative is https://www.citizenobserver.am/.