Tomorrow the administrative court of the Republic of Armenia will make a decision whether to grant the petition filed by Daniel Ionnisyan against the Central Election Commission (CEC) or to dismiss it. Let us remind that Daniel Ionnisyan brought a lawsuit, challenging the decision made by the CEC a few days ago. According to that decision, the event organized by the Yerevan City Hall at the taxpayers’ expense on Mother’s Day, April 7, was not considered as a violation of the Election Code. Whereas Daniel Ionnisyan is convinced that the video is more than enough proof that flowers were handed out by Taron Margaryan and are for campaign purposes. Daniel Ionnisyan said during a conversation with www.aravot.am today that he is satisfied with the progress of the court sessions. “I was able to, to put it bluntly, drag out of the city hall’s representative the admission that the event had been organized at Taron Margaryan’s instruction. Furthermore, I asked whether it was organized every year, the representative replied no, there had been an instruction only regarding this year. I asked whether it had been known that Taron Margaryan was a candidate when the instruction had been given, the representative replied that it had been 7-10 days before the event, and Taron Margaryan had already been a candidate at that time. The arguments put forward by me were generally not denied by the CEC, but the city hall moved for the dismissal of the lawsuit, claiming that it was groundless.” Daniel Ionnisyan also told us that during the court session, surprising doubts were raised about certain facts, for example, whom the flowers had been given, whether they had been residents of Yerevan or whether they had a right to vote. “Admittedly, they wouldn’t check the passports of the people while handing out flowers, but supposedly the majority of walkers in Yerevan are from Yerevan,” the Hello Yerevan candidate for city hall said. The video, in which the person handing out the flowers is asked whether those flowers are from the city hall, and the latter denies and says that they are from Taron Margaryan, was also shown in the courtroom.
According to Daniel Ionnisyan, it is quite clear that a violation of Article 18, Section 7 of the Election Code, handing out goods by a candidate for free, has been committed. “The CEC admits that flowers are goods, and they were given without charge. The video shows that they were given on behalf of the candidate. I don’t think much of courts, but in any case, I expect a fair judgment.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
