Some women candidates were a target of disparaging rhetoric – ODIHR report on Armenian parliamentary elections
Women candidates during the December 9 parliamentary elections in Armenia only occasionally campaigned on their own and rarely appeared as speakers during campaign rallies. Some women candidates were a target of disparaging rhetoric because of their gender, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its final report, summing up the election process.
It is noted that although several candidates, both men and women, positioned high on party lists told the ODIHR EOM that they face harsh and derogatory language online, women candidates often received gender-based negative comments. The source cites a civil society organization focusing on the experience of women in the campaign, that three high-profile women candidates, Lena Nazaryan (MSA), Naira Zohrabyan (PAP) and Arpine Hovhannisyan (RPA), were targeted by especially abusive language online.