“Five years ago, I was conducting a campaign in every yard and district. 5 years have passed, and a lot has been changed in the town. The then courage and fears that were not are today. People have a problem with courage, they fear. It’s no vain that we organized a “Do not fear” march in Vanadzor. And we find the organization of our meetings in the districts unrealistic. Because people will come out to those meetings who are our electorates in all cases and have no fear. And those will not come out who want to know something to decide whom they will vote,” the leader of the “Bright Armenia” party, a member of the “Yelk” alliance Edmon Marukyan informed at the press conference that they are not going to have meetings in the districts.
He assures that people in Vanadzor live in fear. Pressures are exerted on the people, including dismissing from work, “There is an atmosphere of fear, there are pressures in the workplaces, there are reports on widespread distribution of money and registrations. You know what is going on. People call us saying if I am not registered to get the money, it will turn out that I am an opposition. If it turns out that I am an opposition, then they can exert pressure on me. And we are carrying out campaign in this atmosphere.”
As E. Marukyan mentioned, not to “put the population at risk”, they have found a different way to notify about their election campaign programs, “We have thousands electorates in Vanadzor and Lori marzes, we will not ask them to come out with us to our meetings. But now and onwards, this report will be delivered to all apartments in Vanadzor and Lori marzes. I have not published any election campaign booklet, except what I have done in 5 years. Here is my message to the electorates and a report about what I have accomplished in the past 5 years. In the end, there is information about the “Bright Armenia” party and the “Yelk” alliance. And the last page shows brief information about my work in the parliament for 5 years.”
The leader of the “Bright Armenia” party noted that they were receiving numerous calls about the distribution of electoral bribes, “We are constantly receiving calls to the office that a list is compiled for distributing money. Currently, the matter is about only the Republican party. But we do not have a fact to put an end to it legally. Because when we say come and report about this cases, people say, “it’s not our business.” Why? Because they do not trust the law enforcements.” E. Marukyan also said that the “Yelk” is not going to form a coalition with the Republican Party under any circumstances. The “Yelk” alliance is the currently available opposition pole that sends a challenge to the functionaries.
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Only my posters of the “Yelk” alliance were torn in the city, no other poster is torn, why? There are forces who participate in the elections to seize a vote as an “opposition” and then go to join the Republican Party. The “Yelk” alliance has initially declared that we exclude forming a coalition with the Republican Party. Let other forces also declare, why they do not declare.”
Note, “Yelk” (Way out) alliance was formed by 3 parties member of parliament Nikol Pashinyan’s “Civil agreement”, MP Edmon Marukyan’s “Bright Armenia and Armenia’s former Prime Minister Aram Sargsyan’s “Republic”.
