www.aravot.am inquired of Gagik Hambaryan, a political scientist from Gyumri, what difference there was between this Yerevan City Council election and the previous one, whether there was at least one feature, even a type of electoral fraud that was novel in the Armenian reality. “Let me say that there isn’t so much interest in local elections anywhere else; just one international organization was registered to supervise the Yerevan City Council election. However, since our country has almost become a city-state, naturally, political forces in both the government and the opposition paid a lot of attention to this election. This is the distinct feature, because one cannot notice such a thing in any country; one can even say that attention to the Yerevan City Council election was elevated to the level of attention paid to presidential elections. As for the electoral fraud, it was classic Armenian fraud. I was surprised at only one thing; being the capital and having the great power of the intelligentsia, Yerevan submitted to the will of neighborhood tough guys. What we see in the videos put on websites clearly shows that almost all polling places were entrusted to neighborhood tough guys.
“Neighborhood tough guys played a very big role in the Yerevan City Council election. Certainly, here we should mention members of parliament – that same Samvel Alexanyan, Mher Sedrakyan and others – who were actively involved in the city council election.” In response to a question whether it meant that Taron Margaryan should be grateful to that same Mher Sedrakyan and Samvel Alexanyan, the political scientist said: “Let me point out two facts here: firstly, the election campaign of the Republican Party was very interesting, since they would disseminate among the people that Taron Margaryan would be elected mayor. You wouldn’t hear them agitate for the Republican Party; the campaign was not about a specific party.
“They would disseminate that Taron Margaryan was the mayor, and he was loved and accepted by the population more than the Republican Party. And that campaign yielded results. For all that Taron Margaryan is accepted by the people, he should express his gratitude to all those people who helped him – Samvel Alexanyan and Mher Sedrakyan we have mentioned and politicians of small, medium or large caliber who were involved in the election.”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
