RUBEN TOROSIAN CONSIDERS THAT ELECTIONS CAN BE ALREADY QUALIFIED AS FALSIFIED
Noyan Tapan
May 07 2007
YEREVAN, MAY 7, NOYAN TAPAN. "The election campaign proceeds with
unprecedented violations, which already gives the right to speak about
falsified elections." Ruben Torosian, Chairman of Supreme Council
Deputy Club, stated at the discussion organized on May 7 by the Civil
Disobedience public initiative.
In his words, one of the biggest violations is that the majority
of electoral commissions’ members are members of the Republican
Party of Armenia, i.e. the force, "which is going to falsify the
elections." Another big violation, as R. Torosian estimated, is
use of administrative resource by parties holding the power: ARF
Dashnaktsutiun and RPA.
He drew a special attention to the preelection agitation carried out
by TV companies without using the logo "political advertisement." "Lack
of any control resulted in the situation when TV companies, which seem
to be guided by one center, cover election campaign of one candidate
in a well-organized way and do not cover the campaign of another at
all," R. Torosian said. Thus, in his words, from April 26 to May 6
the leader and another members of National Democratic Party spoke
by various TV companies 42 times, including author broadcasts and
news blocs, while the activity of Hanrapetutiun (Republic) Party was
mentioned only in 11 broadcasts. "Meanwhile, NDP had only one meeting
and various press conferences on the same subject, while Hanrapetutiun
besides press conferences held rallies with participation of many
thousands of people," R. Torosian stated.
He reported that the organization headed by him has applied to first
instance courts and CEC in connection with such violations (in total,
nearly 140), but received negative answers to all questions.