The PAP has no clear statistics on the second round of local elections, which took place yesterday. The party will summarize information on its wins and losses in the evening.
Let us remind that yesterday people were to elect community leaders and council members in regions of Gegharkunik, Aragatsotn, Kotayk, Vayots Dzor and Tavush. Residents of towns of Ashtarak and Aparan, region of Aragatsotn, communities of Gavar, Chambarak, Martuni, Sevan and Vardenis, region of Gegharkunik, towns of Yeghegnadzor and Vayk, region of Vayots Dzor and towns of Ayrum, Berd, Dilijan and Noyemberyan, region of Tavush, were to elect community leaders. 262 communities were to elect community leaders and 281 communities were to elect council members.
Read also
285 out of 699 candidates for community leaders are nonpartisan, 282 candidates are Republicans, 87 are members of the PAP, 8 are from the Rule of Law Party, 27 are members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), and the Heritage Party, the People’s Party of Armenia, the Armenian National Congress (ANC), the National Self-Determination Party and the National Democratic Union have one candidate each and the Democracy and Work Party has two candidates. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Tigran Urikhanyan, the PAP press secretary, said in response to our observation that actually, the main rivals are the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the PAP, and at the end of the day, the RPA is in a leading position again, “Local elections are elections of neither statesmen, nor politicians, but individuals who carry out local government. I would really like the society, the voters to perceive these elections, which are a link in a bigger chain, as elections aimed at improving, positively changing their lives.”
In some communities, the PAP observed the elections and complains about the oxidizing ink again, in some cases, about the arbitrariness of commission members and gatherings outside polling stations.
They note that the police were more consistent than necessary as far as their candidates were concerned – candidates of the PAP were summoned to police stations for talks.
Nonetheless, the PAP press secretary asserts that there had been no extraordinary incidents or phenomena. However, he makes one observation, “The moral norms and the letter of the law contradict each other during these elections, because henceforth, the influence on the
people’s free will is made without contradicting the law.” Mr. Urikhanyan didn’t wish to explain or comment on his own observation leaving it to the readers’ logic and imagination.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
