In an interview given to 24 News, Tigran Avinyan, the mayoral candidate of the “Civil Contract” party, referring to the violations recorded by the observation missions during the pre-election campaign, questioned their impartiality and doubted their logic. “The organizations that present these data are not reputable; there are deep serious problems related to their impartiality […] I want to know where they are financed from?”
Sona Ayvazyan, the representative of the “Akanates” (Eyewitness) observation initiative, and the Executive Director of the Transparency International Anticorruption Center, who was hosted on the “Aravot” “Areresum” (“Confrontation”) program, answered the observation that their organizations, which are part of the civil society, worked cooperatively with the government in the past years and were loyal. She answered what “black cat” passed through them to receive such harsh evaluations.
Sona Ayvazyan
“I wouldn’t say that a “black cat” has passed. We have always criticized the phenomena we considered wrong and supported the manifestations that we considered right. In other words, there was no problem in that regard. Just seeing the problems during the pre-election campaign and expressing our criticism, probably the political force or forces that are the subject of criticism did not like it, and that is the reason why they got so upset, or they try to justify themselves, or they don’t justify themselves at all and try to discredit us more.
But I wouldn’t sum it up like that, that it was a “black cat” that passed. Of course, the quality of the elections is essential to understand how legitimate the authorities we work with are. But in the political society, especially those organizations that work in the field of public policy, we inevitably have to communicate with politicians or state and local self-government structures. In that sense, even if disagreements exist, communication, cooperation, or relationships are inevitable and must happen.”
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Daniel Ioannisyan
The other program guest, Daniel Ioannisyan, representative of the “Independent Observer Public Alliance” and the Coordinator of programs for the Union of Informed Citizens, later asked Tigran Avinyan: “Seriously?” Avinyan needs to find out where the Association of Informed Citizens, Transparency International, and the Helsinki Citizens’Assembly-Vanadzor are financed.
Dear Tigran, go to the website and see if you need to know where we are financed from. And unlike Civil Contract, we still don’t know who gave money for the campaign and how much. To us, who gave money and how much, everything is written on the website.”
During the program, abuse of administrative resources and other violations observed during the campaign were addressed.
Anna ISRAYELYAN
