The National Assembly election on May 6 was held in accordance with the international standards. Tigran Mukuchyan, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) chairman, repeated this statement of the CIS observers today. In response to a question of www.aravot.am why he had rejected Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) member Naira Zohrabyan’s proposal to examine the seals before the election, referring to the information spread in mass media that seals would oxidize within 3-4 hours, Mukuchyan explained, “I actually cannot understand where that news emerged from. I offered everyone to come and check the seal. No, it turns out that it is not right, because the matter of that seal was tested yesterday. At least in my passport, the seal is still there. I explained in detail yesterday why that seal disappeared quickly.” We also inquired from Mr. Mukuchyan how he would comment on the information, according to which, the problem with seals had been solved not within a few hours, as he assured yesterday, but according to the information spread by PAP candidate Naira Zohrabyan, the OSCE observers witnessed oxidizing seals at 2 p.m., Mr. Mukuchyan repeated that this problem had existed in the first part of the election and the problem had been solved within 1-1.5 hours.
Arpine SIMONYAN
