The investigation launched after an article about an election crime was published by www.aravot.am has been dropped On the election day, February 18, at no 16/41 polling place of Nor Kharberd, www.aravot.am witnessed and filmed how the election commission chairman called his acquaintance, Seda, to help a voter. The latter saying, “Mister, you are voting for the Republican Party, aren’t you?” and not even asking the voter’s opinion, voted instead of the “mister” in front of a group of journalists.
One can clearly see in the video that someone has voted in the voter’s stead, which is a crime. However, it turns out that the video is not enough to punish the perpetrators. The investigation launched at the Masis police station, police department of the region of Ararat, as the police has informed us, has been dropped “due to lack of corpus delicti.” It is interesting how the police have reached that conclusion. While collecting evidence, the police found the mister mentioned in the article, Dimitri Kirazyan, a resident of 49 3rd St., village of Nor Kharberd. According to the police, the latter wrote in the explanation that the proxy had asked him whom he had wanted to vote for, and he had answered: “Serzh,” and the proxy had put a mark next to the name of “the candidate he chose,” therefore it was not clear to him why an investigation had been launched. Naturally, the explanation of the proxy, Seda, duplicates the mister’s words. She stated that since the mister had talked in a low voice, in order to hear clearly and be sure, she had asked him: “Mister, you are voting for the Republican Party, aren’t you?” and had gotten an affirmative answer. Moreover, the girl was even surprised at the journalist’s complaint. It turns out that if investigations are conducted in this manner, whatever fact journalists record at a polling place, even reinforced with a video, just one explanation that “we wanted to vote for Serzh” is enough not to punish a perpetrator.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
