YEREVAN, June 8 -- What the European Parliament's chief election observer saw on June 7 was an orderly process carried out with meticulousness. What Moscow saw was something to be dismissed before the first ballot was counted.

Nathalie Loiseau, the French MEP who led the European Parliament delegation to Armenia's parliamentary elections, told a press conference in Yerevan on Monday that the process had been conducted with care. "The electoral process was calm and very well organised, procedures seemed meticulously observed, and small inconsistencies before counting were carefully verified," Loiseau said in a joint preliminary statement released by the international observer mission.

Her delegation was one of several international bodie...