Judiciary is perceived as the single most corrupt institution in Armenia, followed by public officials and civil servants as well as parliament, according to the latest report released by a global anti-graft watchdog.

Political parties, business/private sector as well as media are also mentioned by Armenian respondents in the global public opinion survey, 2009 Global Corruption Barometer, released by
Berlin-based Transparency International on Wednesday.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office on Tuesday announced that two people had been arrested on suspicion of committing electoral fraud in the course of the elections to the Yerevan municipal assembly held last Sunday.

In a report published on its official website (www.genproc.am), the Office identified the suspects as Norayr Eghiazaryan, who was a member of the district electoral commission at polling precinct 8/05 on May 31 and Armen Ohanyan, a voter at the same polling precinct.

President Serzh Sargsyan late last week signed a decree appointing Vazgen Manukyan, the leader of the National-Democratic Union, Chairman of the recently established Public Council.

By his May 29 decree, President Serzh Sargsyan also established the composition of the 24-member body. The following members joined it.

President Serzh Sargsyan on Tuesday held consultations with the participation of senior representatives of law-enforcement structures on the subject of the proposal of declaring an amnesty in Armenia, the presidential press service reported the same day.

“In addition to the appeal for submitting proposals on the necessity and terms of declaring amnesty that was directed to all political forces, public figures and the Public Council on May 28, Serzh Sargsyan instructed corresponding departments to submit their proposals on terms and legal procedures of the amnesty until June 15,” Sargsyan’s press office said in a brief statement.

Citing a “disgraceful” election Armenia’s main opposition declared late on Monday that they refuse to pick their earned mandates in the City Council of Yerevan.

“The Armenian National Congress is not going to work with these authorities,” A1 Plus quoted opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan as telling his numerous supporters at a rally in downtown Yerevan.

Preliminary results emerging from Sunday’s vote in the Yerevan City Council elections show that the ruling Republican Party of Armenia has swept the election and will have its top candidate as the Armenian capital’s next mayor.

According to the information reported by the Central Election Commission, with all ballots processed, the Republicans are top finishers with 190,171 votes (47.39 percent), followed by Prosperous Armenia Party (91,141 votes, or 22.71 percent) and the opposition Armenian National Congress (69,871 votes, or 17.41 percent).

A small group of international observers have given mostly positive assessments to the Sunday elections to the Yerevan City Council, saying they have mainly corresponded to European standards.

Fifteen observers from the Council of Europe (CoE) Congress of Local and Regional Authorities who monitored the vote on May 31 said: “There were shortcomings, which probably affected the results, but not the legitimacy of the elections.”

Leaders of the political parties that failed to make it to the Yerevan City Council have given only negative assessments of the election process in the capital’s vote on Sunday.

According to the preliminary data published by the Central Election Commission, four political parties: Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law), Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF), the Labor Socialist Party of Armenia (LSPA) and the People’s Party (PP) have not cleared the required 7 percent election barrier.

Polling stations across Yerevan opened on Sunday morning (8.00 am) for an estimated 771,000 eligible voters to cast their ballots in the capital’s first municipal elections in nearly two decades.

(Since the adoption of Armenia’s constitution in 1995, the mayor of Yerevan has been appointed by the president. The constitutional reform of 2005 in line with Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe paved the way for a direct election of the city council that in turn elects a mayor.)

As voting polls close on another Armenian election, accounts of election violations during the Yerevan City Council election have dominated the day, but are likely to have little influence on the outcome.

Already, some observer groups have reported apparent voting fraud, including mass bussing of possibly-ineligible voters from districts outside the capital municipality.