Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) member Ashot Aghababyan’s opposition rival in no. 33 electoral district 70-year-old Shaliko Zoryan voiced about this during a conversation with www.aravot.am. “There were village headmen who were disgusted, fled villages not to meet with him, not to meet with him for God’s sake, because if they promise votes and do not guarantee, they are in debt. I don’t justify, the village headmen commit crimes and they will have to face the law one day, they cannot continue like this all the time, now can they? However, there is another threat – a village headman gets 10 thousand AMD for every vote and when after the election they count and see that those people have taken the money and haven’t voted for them, the village headmen owe that money. They both commit a crime for the sake of the pro-government candidate and find themselves under serious threats,” our interlocutor presented the atmosphere in no. 33 electoral district in this manner. In response to a question of www.aravot.am how this story ended, whether the village headman was compelled to pay himself for the votes that were not cast, Mr. Zoryan said, “Probably, I heard from far that they
will hold them responsible, if the votes are not won, they should pay the money. School principals, educational institutions are involved here. We know our history for centuries, we had a mission to preserve books, we devoted ourselves to that, now our educational institutions, their principals have become a tool of fraud, intrigues, bribe taking and giving.”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
