Early parliamentary elections in Armenia: UK statement

News Desk: Ambassador Neil Bush congratulates the Armenian people on the successful conduct of their early parliamentary elections and thanks ODIHR's election observation mission.

Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to thank the esteemed Armenian Ambassador, for updating the Permanent Council on the early parliamentary elections held in Armenia on 20 June. The UK congratulates the Armenian people on the successful conduct of these elections.

We are very grateful to ODIHR for all the work of the Election Observation Mission for these elections and for their reports, including their statement of preliminary findings and conclusions.

We were pleased to read in the statement that the elections were competitive and generally well managed within the short time-frame. Voters were provided with a broad range of options, and fundamental rights and freedoms were generally respected, with contestants being able to campaign freely.

We share concerns that the campaign period was characterised by intense polarisation and marred by increasingly inflammatory rhetoric, and that women were side-lined throughout the campaign.

We look forward to the Election Observation Mission’s final report which will contain valuable recommendations on how to make further improvements to the electoral process and address issues identified. These objective observations and recommendations from ODIHR are invaluable tools and we encourage the Government of Armenia to make full use of them, including by implementing these and previous OSCE/ODIHR recommendations.

The UK will continue our close partnership with Armenia, including through cooperation on democratic and economic reforms.

Thank you Chair.