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“The European Union is optimistic about the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia,” Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski made such a statement during today’s press conference.

He informed that the EU has allocated over 7 million euros to support the organization of various events with a total of 4 million euros having been allocated to support the introduction of voters' fingerprint identification equipment.

P. Świtalski considers the installation of the surveillance cameras in the polling stations as a positive progress and the mutual agreement of the stakeholders as a great progress.

“The allocated sum is smaller than the one allocated for the previous program. Much of what we carried out over the past 12 months cannot be expressed in numbers. We would not do that if we were not convinced that these elections would be held at a higher level than the previous ones. This does not mean that they will be perfect. It is impossible to predict everything. However, we are optimistic at the moment. It is even possible that the stakeholders’ political will turns out not to be enough, however the Armenian citizens must have faith and take part in elections with a belief that this time their vote will be registered. As for the risks and issues, we are aware of them,” the head of the EU Delegation said.

He underscored the involvement of the civil society.

The members of the Citizen Observer Initiative also attended the press conference. President of the Europe in Law Association NGO Lusine Hakobyan noted that the Europe in Law Association NGO, Transparency International Anti-Corruption Centre and the Journalists Club "Asbarez" have joined the Citizen Observer Initiative.

“This year the observation will be conducted within “Public Supervision in 2017 Parliamentary Elections” program which costs 460 thousand euros, 370 thousand out of which makes up the EU investment. The program aim at ensuring free and fair elections in Armenia. We have developed a number of activities to reach the target,” she noted adding that they make efforts to improve the readiness and the quality of the observation mission.

L. Hakobyan informed that the observers are trained in two stages.

Coordinator of Electoral Program of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center Armen Grigoryan noted that currently have already 3000 registered observers 2000 of whom have already undergone trainings.

In the words of the Board Head of the Journalists Club "Asbarez" Levon Barseghyan, it will be perfect if they manage to have their observers in all the polling stations.