Stepan Safaryan who was nominated a candidate for MP in no. 1 electoral district of Avan wrote a status update on his Facebook wall (https://www.facebook.com/styopa.safaryan?fref=ts), in which he exposed the violations and vicious phenomena revealed in the mentioned electoral district in the pre-election period. The candidate for MP stated that one of his reliable sources had informed him that as early as in the May 6 election, owners of supermarkets forced and “ensured” that all their employees were registered at an address of a certain electoral district. There are cases when Yerevan city and neighborhood officials instructed condominiums of 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th precincts of Nor Nork to look for resources, in order to find votes for the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) candidate in the 1st and 2nd precincts of Avan and Nor Nork. According to S. Safaryan’s sources, they have already started to make promises of election bribes in the mentioned electoral district of Avan. Two sources with no connection to each other (one in Avan and the other in Nor Nork) informed that the moment of handing out 10 000 AMD to each voter was approaching. One of those people who were looking forward to that said that they had been informed that the promised sum would be provided within the next few days. According to S. Safaryan’s information, meetings have taken place and instructions have been made in favor of the RPA candidate in many kindergartens.
As for what steps Mr. Safaryan would take, being aware of the mentioned violations and facts, www.aravot.am tried to find out during a conversation with him. He stated, “I think that the mayor, the Minister of Education and Science understand quite well that they should prevent such things. My only goal is that they put an end to all that. As for the issues related to election bribes, you know that regardless of how accurate the information is, there is always a problem with reporting to the police. It is a very clear thing, I find it out from
people who have been offered, even included in a list, but people should want to report themselves. I cannot do that in their stead.”
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Talking about the reasons for the mentioned attitude, our interlocutor emphasized, “I am sorry, but we don’t trust the law-enforcement bodies of Armenia very much; frankly speaking, even if they wanted to report, I am afraid they wouldn’t do that.” In response to our question how he would struggle personally, whether he would report to the police. S. Safaryan replied, “Yes, I will look for evidence. Let it be a surprise, but we will take a step within the next few days, which will present them with a fait accompli.” We inquired of Mr. Safaryan whether the psychological atmosphere in the electoral district was normal, whether there was an atmosphere of fear. S. Safaryan replied, “Certainly, there is; knowing quite well who lives next to them, people just cannot speak out about their preferences. Residents prefer meetings in apartments, in order that no one sees the candidate. I am sorry, but I cannot give a positive assessment of such an election, knowing quite well that all elections in Armenia are like this one. One should either struggle or just not participate. However, it means that one should not participate in anything, since everything is like this. That is why, no matter how displeased I am and regardless of the fact that I think the atmosphere during elections is vicious, I will continue struggling.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
