Philippe Raffi Kalfayan - Monitoring the June 2026 Parliamentary Elections in Armenia | Ep 535, Apr 27, 2026

Chapters

1. 00:00 Intro to show with Dr. Philippe Raffi Kalfayan
2. 01:11 What is the IODA - the International Observatory for Democracy in Armenia?
3. 11:25 What were the observations of the first IODA delegation to Yerevan in March?
4. 12:40 Lack of judiciary independence
5. 16:32 Extensive use of administrative resources
6. 20:52 Are election monitoring organizations impartial?
7. 24:48 Why IODA's independence is important
8. 32:25 Which government agencies accepted/declined to meet with IODA in Yerevan?
9. 34:55 Who was FIP, the organization accusing IODA of being a small diaspora organization?
10. 40:00 More about FIP
11. 42:29 Fact checking platform for checking fact checking platforms
12. 43:22 UIC accuses Civil Contract and also the ARF for campaign finance issues
13. 45:38 The EU providing tools to the CEC
14. 46:45 A plan to eliminate all opposition forces from challenging Civil Contracts potential super majority in parliament
15. 48:38 Can the OSCE & ODIHR missions be considered impartial?
16. 53:40 What practical steps can the IODA take to help?
17. 55:41 What's the EU's stance towards all the democratic failures of the Armenian government?
18. 1:01:16 Any chance that the EPC could speak up about undemocratic issues in Armenia?
19. 1:03:47 About Dr. Philippe Raffi Kalfayan
20. 1:04:49 SUPPORT GROONG - podcasts.groong.org/donate