These elections were vastly different from others in the sense that not only did the ruling party use its administrative resources, but other political forces did as well. The head of the Journalists’ Arena Club NGO, Levon Barseghyan, spoke about this at the Media Center’s press hall. A representative of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, Sona Ayvazyan, also held this opinion. According to her, people with different positions used the administrative resources they had for their favored forces. According to Levon Barseghyan, it was difficult to notice what administrative resources were used for what force in that case. He said that this time, there was diversification in administrative resources.
They presented the data from the Witness (Akanates) observation mission. According to Levon Barseghyan, their observers noticed a variety of violations, from illegally controlling the elections and votes to bringing voters to the polling stations by car. “Citizens were instructed. They had lists in their hands to control who came and who did not. They stood close to the voting booths to control the votes. They took people from the door to the voting booth while exerting psychological pressure.” According to Levon Barseghyan, the main people who carried out these violations were proxies of the Armenia alliance. There were also violations tied to the I Have Honor alliance.
There were also several violations attributed to the Civil Contract party’s representatives. Barseghyan said that alerts about power outages were concerning since they took place in 5-10 minute intervals, which did not have an impact on counting the results because people immediately turned on their phones’ flashlights.
Sona Ayvazyan said that there were 580 observers in 300 polling stations, and 22 observers were going from place to place. “Observations show that the process, overall, was organized, smooth, and it took place in a peaceful environment without widespread severe violations,” Sona Ayvazyan said. However, there were polling stations where tension was noticed due to the presence of other people. The referrals and controlled voting were widespread throughout all of Armenia. According to her, the lion’s share of these election violations falls on the Armenia alliance. She also said that there were 2-3 cases where soldiers were brought to vote and instructed by their commanders. According to Sona Ayvazyan, in one episode, military groups of different orientations were brought to one polling station.
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Genya Petrosyan, a spokesperson for the Foundation for the Development and Protection of Rights, also said that the most common election violations were referrals and controlled voting. Three such cases were reported to the police. She said that the rights of their observers were also violated. In some polling stations they were not allowed to take pictures of separate pages in the register or proxies’ data. The safe was opened in one polling station one hour before voting started. In another, not all ballots were placed in the safe due to lack of space.
Representatives of the Armenia alliance, Civil Contract party, Zartonk party, and I Have Honor alliance allowed these violations.
Lusine Budaghyan
