There were holes in the ballot boxes in several of the polling stations in Gyumri’s Ani neighborhood. The representatives of the Shirak province branch of the Armenia alliance spoke about this with Aravot Daily. We also witnessed one of these incidents. An argument took place at the 31/09 polling station on this topic in the Ani neighborhood. One of the proxies demanded an explanation from the commission head.
The head of the commission, Rustam Petrosyan, told us in an interview that there were no disagreements between him and the proxy. The proxy voiced their complaint regarding one of the torn boxes. According to the commission head, those were very small holes and that is how they received the boxes. He called his superiors in the presence of observers and voters, where they informed him that this is fine, and there is no violation of the law.
“Even more, we began the session at 7 AM in the presence of observers and proxies. Their political party’s proxy was also present. The box was checked to make sure that it was empty, and then it was stamped. Then, it was set aside and not moved. If there was a legal violation, the proxy did not object, but I as the head, offered the book, and said please, if he truly knows that this is a violation, he can take notes, write a complaint, or write his special opinion. He refused, so I leave judgments up to you. If I knew there was a violation, I would definitely register it,” the commission leader said. He pointed to the holes in the box, noting that it was impossible to remove so much paper from the small holes. “What are we, magicians, to get so much paper out of that hole? It is not appropriate for our parties and candidates to manipulate and provoke,” said Rustam Petrosyan.
Nune Arevshatyan
