Month: June 2009

STUFFED BY HURTING FINGERS

A1+
01:44 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

Proxies at the Malatia-Sebastia district’s 8/24 polling station drew
up reports of "ballot stuffings".

According to the proxies, at around 6:30 p.m. 20-25 people intruded the
polling station, surrounded commission members and stuffed the ballots.

"Four to five boys turned my way, took out ballots and two of them
stuffed them in the boxes without letting the third boy stuff them. I
hurt my finger while this was going on. I closed the hole and my
fingers stayed under.

They left when I started to scream," ANC observer Narine Nahapetyan
told "A1+".

ARF proxy Valery Khachatryan also confirmed the stuffing, while
president of the commission Sveta Asatryan neither confirmed nor
denied.

"The proxy warned me that there were people gathered outside. I went
to warn law-enforcement officers to come. I came when I heard the
screaming, but didn’t see anything."

52.85% VOTER TURNOUT

A1+
01:43 am | June 01, 2009

Official

As of 8 p.m., voter turnout in the elections for Yerevan’s Council
of Elders was 52.85%, that is, a turnout of 407,745 voters.

According to data provided by the Central Electoral Commission, 52.38%
of voters participated in the vote at the #1 precinct (Avan, Nor
Nork), 51.59% at the #2 precinct (Nor Nork), 49.86% at the #3 precinct
(Kanaker-Zeytun, Nor Nork), 45.40% at the #4 precinct (Arabkir), 49.92%
at the #5 precinct (Davtashen, Arabkir), 51.48 % at the #6 precinct
(Ajapnyak), 67.49% at the #7 precinct (Ajapynak, Malatia-Sebastia),
64.03% at the #8 precinct (Malatia-Sebastia, Shengavit), 51.63% at the
#9 precinct (Kentron, Ajapnyak), 47.49% at the #10 precinct (Kentron,
Nork-Marash), 56.24% at the #11 precinct (Shengavit, Erebuni), 55.83%
at the #12 precinct (Shengavit, Erebuni) and 44.35% at the #13 precinct
(Erebuni, Nubarashen).

SEEMED TO BE GUNSHOTS

A1+
01:41 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

An alarm was received today that there had been shots and one injured
at the Nor Nork 4th quarter district.

Head of the ANC headquarters at the Nor Nork 1st quarter district
Gurgen Yeghiazaryan told "A1+" that a group of terrified citizens
came to the ANC headquarters and quickly informed that somebody was
transferred to the hospital after receiving gun shots at the Nor Nork
4th quarter district.

"I sent people to our sub-headquarters to verify the information on
the scene, but it was not possible because there was nobody there,"
said Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, adding that they had tried to find out
from the Nor Nork hospital if the person with the gun shots had
been transferred there or not. It turned out that nobody had been
transferred to the hospital with gun shots.

Later, Republican Party press speaker Eduard Sharmazanov informed
that there had been no gun shots at Nor Nork connected with the
elections. "The elections are being held in a calm environment and
there is a large voter turnout. In general, we condemn any dispersion
of false information and senseless stir of emotions," said Sharmazanov.

NO POLICE INTERVENTION

A1+
01:40 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

Journalist for "168 Hours" Armine Avetyan and "Transparency
International" representative Sona Ayvazyan were beaten up at the
Malatia-Sebastia district’s 8/05 polling station at around 3 p.m.

"I was standing near the window when 20 shaved-heads came in. Six of
them surrounded the voting booth, while another six started pushing
and beating me and Sona. Commission president Petros Avetisyan,
Vice-president Khachatur Khachatryan were standing calmly and not
doing anything. They held us to the wall, surrounded us and started
stuffing the ballots," Armine Avetyan told "A1+".

They took Avetyan’s recorder, camera and even the phone so she wouldn’t
call anyone.

"Police officers were standing outside, but didn’t do anything."

According to the journalist, the shaved-heads could have been MP Samvel
Alexanyan’s men because Armine Avetyan had prohibited Alexanyan’s
relative from stuffing the ballots and the shaved-head had tried to
bribe the journalist.

"He kept trying to invite me to eat. He told me that he would pay me
money to stop me from doing my job," said Armine Avetyan, adding that
she had called Samvel Alexanyan and told him what had happened. In
response, Samvel Alexanyan told her that she should have called him
on the spot.

MP Anahit Bakhshyan received an alarm and rushed to the polling
station.

"There was a lot of commotion for some reason and it was clear that
they weren’t voters. I called Samvel Alexanyan and told him that this
is not a good service for the president. He got frustrated and told me
that he would tell those people to leave," Anahit Bakhshyan told "A1+".

"A1+" tried to find out information about the incident from proxies
and observers at the polling station, but each of them gave his
own explanation, saying that they had left the polling station at
that moment.

NO NEW VIOLATIONS

A1+
01:36 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

The violations registered at the polling stations until now are
classic violations. There were rumors that there would be new
violations during these elections, yet we haven’t seen such yet,"
"Civil Society Institute" representative, "hotline" coordinator Artak
Kirakosyan told "A1+".

As of 2 p.m., the "Hotline" had already received nearly 40 alarms
from observers, proxies and voters. In addition, 20 rapid reaction
automobiles were touring the polling stations without waiting for a
specific alarm.

Touring the polling stations of the Avan district, we found out that
the main electoral violations were connected with placement of voting
booths. For instance, the voting booths at the 1/1 polling station of
the district were clung to the wall and were facing the commission,
making the voter look towards the commission.

President of the polling station commission Vardan Muradyan assured
us that voters had a hard time moving around at the station due to
the small size of the station. That is why they had fixed a chain at
a 1.5-2 meter distance.

This is not a violation of the law. All commission members gave their
consent and it was the report was drawn up," assured the commission
president referring to the RA "Electoral Code".

It seemed that the area at the 1/2 polling station was rather large,
but the voting booths were installed in the opposite direction
again. President of this staton’s commission Hranush Khachatryan
assured us that they installed the booths like that because the tables
had to be at a distance of 1 meter.

We were caught by surprise at the 1/19 polling station. True, the
voting booths were installed by law, but they were near the door and
in front of the windows. President of the commission Tamara Vahanyan
assured us that it has been like that during all elections and there
have never been any problems. According to him, they hadn’t received
any warnings from the Central Electoral Commission. We talked about
ANC proxy Andranik Petrosyan, but he also didn’t see any violation
of the law.

The situation was more ridiculous at the 1/3 polling station. A young
man came out of the "Z" taxi with a list in his hand and tried to enter
the polling station. We asked him what the lists were and he said
that they were the lists of residents living on the 4th cul-de-sac
in Avan district, so that "the people at the polling station could
participate in the vote."

"We haven’t brought the list to the polling station. We are simply
checking to see that everybody comes to vote," said the young man.

Let us mention that as of 4 p.m, nearly 900 people had cast their
votes at this polling station and at 1 p.m., Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan came to the 10/21 polling station at the Levon Shant school
to cast his vote.

Journalist for "168 Hours" Armine Avetyan and "Transparency
International" representative Sona Ayvazyan were beaten up.

HANDING OUT FOOD

A1+
01:33 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

There were no electoral violations registered at the Republican Party’s
sub-headquarters, yet some workers were handing out the "For you,
Armenia" disks to a woman and showing her who to vote for when "A1+"
arrived to the polling station.

"A1+" asked them what they were saying to the woman and what was going
on. One of the men said that being a member of the council of elders,
he had done a lot of work on buildings and the woman had come to find
out information regarding the roof.

The woman went to vote at the 5/31 polling station is located near
the sub-headquarters.

A group or youth were handing out food from the #4 microbus in front of
the 9/28 polling station. "A1+" asked who they were and they said that
they represented a benevolent organization, but then told the truth.

"We are from the "Prosperous Armenia" party and we have brought food
for our commission members."

According to him, even CEC representatives came and did not make
any remarks.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HAK CHANGES ITS MOTTO BUT THE STARTEGY REMAINS THE SAME

Lragir.Am
22:38:19 – 01/06/2009

The leader of the Armenian National Congress, during the June 1 rally,
dwelt on the quality of the Yerevan Mayor election and presented
the future intentions of the HAK. Levon Ter-Petrosyan stressed
that the assessment is preliminary as they have not yet summed what
happened. Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated with regret that a great number of
electoral breaches were the electoral bribes. He also, feels sorry that
the great part of the society does not care about the Karabakhi issue
and the Armenian and Turkish relations. Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that
the government burnt all the bridges for a dialogue. He reminded that
they were ready to launch a dialogue with the goevrnment in case the
political prisoners were set free and the Yerevan Mayor election was
held in a free and fair way. He stated that the Congress is going
to appeal to the Central Electoral Commission as well as to the
Administrative court to declare invalid the results of the elections.

IF THIS OPPOSITION LACKED

Lragir.Am
22:19:40 – 01/06/2009

The leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan
during the oppositional rally on June 1, presented Robert Kocharyan’s
and Serge Sargsyan’s ideas on a state.

He stated that the state of their dreams is one without opposition,
political parties, a state of obedient people. And as Ter-Petrosyan
stated they have been trying to establish this kind of state for 11
years, if they needed to rig elections they did it, if they needed
to take up violence against the voters, they did it, if they needed
to shoot the opositiona l supporters, they did it.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that if this opposition lacked, the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun and the OYP could only dream to become a part of the
colaition. If this opposition lacked, Vazgen Manuyan could never
become the president of the Public Council.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that the opposition is the material,
which enables the government to manoeuvre in the foreign policy, he
added that he had never seen any document to be presented to Serge
Sargsyan and the latter did not sign it. But he could get used of
the opposition and say that if he signs this or that document, while
being back to Armenia, the oposition will kill him.

ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN STATEMENT

Lragir.Am
21:46:42 – 01/06/2009

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun issued a statement in connection with
the Yerevan Mayor election, which runs that the party considered
yesterday’s elections as a way to overcome the atmosphere of hostility,
which was fomed after the 2008 presidential election.

The party states, that again happened what had already happened
before, the district and oligarchic authorities, elecotral bribes
and administrative levers played a great role in the election.

As the statement runs, the party considers senseless to deal with the
result of the elections from legal point of view. But the stances
of the party are clear, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is not going to
conciliate with this situation. The Dashnaktsutyun representative at
the Central electoral commission is not going to sign the final report
on the results of the Yerevan Mayor election. They also call on the
government to declare invalid the voting at several polling stations.

RALLY STARTED NEAR MATENADARAN

Lragir.Am
21:29:33 – 01/06/2009

The rally of the Armenian National Congress started near
Matenadaran. Opening it, the Head of the board of the All-Armenian
Movement Ararat Zurabyan stated that a new non-legitimate system was
formed within the government in result of yesterday’s Yerevan Mayor
Election. He stated that the opposition will continue its struggle.

David Shahnazaryan stated that there is only one question now on
which solution depend the other questions, which is Serge Sargsyan’s
resignation.