Yerevan, June 12 /Mediamax/. CEO of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Ambassador John Danilovich expressed hope that during the presidential elections of 2008 in Armenia, the trend, developing in the positive direction, marked during the recent parliamentary elections, will be preserved.

John Danilovich said this in an interview to Mediamax and the Armenian Service of the RFE/RL.

“We watched with great care the parliamentary elections of May 12 in Armenia. We understand that the general consensus is that these elections were improvement when comparing with the previous ones, which is obviously the trend that we wanted to see”, Chief Executive Director of MCC stated.

John Danilovich said that “we are still watching the situation to hear more about what is being done with regards to prosecution and investigation of the election irregularities and the continued reform efforts of the election legislation. We communicated this message to the President, Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Foreign Minister of Armenia”.

Head of MCC noted that the new indicators in all areas will come out in the late summer.

“The MCC Program is not an easy program; it is not easy to become eligible and not easy to remain eligible”, John Danilovich stated.

Commenting on Mediamax’s request on the fact that the Armenian authorities do not always agree to the assessments of such organizations, as Freedom House or Transparency International, based on which the indicators of MCC are defined, John Danilovich said:

“If the government of Armenia or the government of any other country, included in our MCC programs, have a disagreement with regards to the indicator sources, such as Freedom House, we encourage the government to discuss with the various agencies, such as Freedom House, as to why they believe that the indicator assessment is wrong - they didn’t take into account the right information, or enough information, or out of date information? We want the countries to engage so that the indicators are accurate and there are no mistakes”.

John Danilovich also noted that “we take very seriously what Freedom House says, but we also listen in addition to other sources of information: to our embassy here, to other international and European organizations, to hear what they have to say about the general situation in Armenia”.

“We have strong and dynamic dialogue with the Armenian government on all levels. It is very open, direct, engaging and very positive relationship”, Chief Executive Director of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) stated.