30 January 2013
Deputy Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Tina Schoen, arrived in Armenia on January 29 for a pre-election visit ahead of February's presidential election.
Schoen and Operations Officer Iryna Sabashuk are holding meetings in Yerevan to gather information about the pre-election situation in the country and prepare logistical elements for the mission.
"We will come back before the elections when we have full briefings with all the presidential candidates and the Central Election Commission and then we will assess the elections based on what we have seen on the Election Day and on what we have heard. It is a bit early to make a conclusion at this stage, but we are making preparations, having good meetings, we have a lot of information and we are making practical arrangements for the deployment of the mission," Tina Schoen told A1+.
The OSCE representative says OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will have about 30 observers for the Election Day.
"In addition to that the ODIHR is already on the ground and they will deploy more observers and we will be observing and reporting after the elections as well. We do not interfere in elections, we are observers," she said.
This will mark Schoen's 25th visit to Armenia. She served as the chief of staff Special Co-ordinator Francois-Xavier de Donnea during the OSCE's observation of the 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia and previously traveled to the country with numerous OSCE PA presidents, special representatives and election observation missions.
