“Let them not try to blacken the election; they won’t be able to do that,” Hovik Abrahamyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the manager of the campaign headquarters of Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent President of the Republic of Armenia and the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) candidate for president, said during a conversation with Aravot.
Yesterday, two candidates for president, Raffi Hovhannisyan and Armen Melikyan, stated that there was electoral fraud. They specifically mentioned that Taron Margaryan, the mayor of Yerevan, was collecting city hall staff’s passport information, and some meetings of educational and cultural associations took place in the city hall.
Hovik Abrahamyan said that they were very strict; all headquarters and regional offices were given instructions so that no one would be able to violate the Election Code. “Those people who want to besmirch the election from the beginning should understand that it is not only the government’s responsibility, it is also the opposition’s responsibility, it is not only the RPA’s responsibility,” Hovik Abrahamyan said.
The spokesperson thinks that the first week of the RPA’s campaign was generally successful.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
