Zurabyan: How Many Votes were Rigged
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 12:21:13 – 10/09/2011
I would like to echo recent revelations of the confidential cables of
the U.S. Embassy on the events of 2008-2010 in Armenia, stated the
coordinator of the Armenian National Congress, Levon Zurabyan, opening
his speech at the rally on September 9. `Thus, the U.S. diplomatic
cables state: first, in the presidential elections of 2008, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan got 490,000-570,000 votes instead of the reported
350,000. Second, according to Valery Poghosyan, a member of the
Constitutional Court, the decision of the CC on the presidential
elections was made and imposed on the Constitutional Court through
pressure by the president administration,’ Levon Zurabyan announced.
Poghosyan told the U.S. embassy official that Robert Kocharyan had
pressured the justices to approve the protocol of the Central Election
Commission.
`Third, according to the Americans, the elections to the Council of
Yerevan were rigged totally and systematically because in the most
optimistic scenario for the Republicans they would get 25-35% whereas
50% was reported,’ Zurabyan said.
`Fourth, the violent dispersion of the demonstrators on March 1 was
Robert Kocharyan’s decision and personal order, despite all the fairy
tales told later. Against these big revelations, I would like to note
a fact which seems to be a trifle at first sight but amazingly
demonstrates what filchers we and the international community have to
deal with. It became known from the cables of the U.S. diplomats that
the French President Sarkozy did not intend to congratulate Serzh
Sargsyan but Edward Nalbandyan, the Armenian ambassador to France
then, used his connection with l’Elysee to the draft text of the
congratulation and published it without agreeing with the French,
hoping that the French would be reluctant to appear amid a scandal by
disclaiming the fact of the congratulation,’ said the coordinator of
the Armenian National Congress.
`What are the conclusions to be drawn from the abovementioned? It’s a
simple sum to do,’ says Zurabyan. `First, if 220,000 votes for
Ter-Petrosyan were stolen for Serzh Sargsyan, as the Americans state,
Serzh Sargsyan got almost as many votes as Ter-Petrosyan, and he could
not win the first round. Considering that the number of voters was
falsified, which the Americans stated in open official reports, by
500,000, as far as we know, the percentage of votes for Ter-Petrosyan
should be counted from 1,100,000 rather than 1,600,000. In this case,
it is clear that Ter-Petrosyan won in the firs round.’
`Second, the Americans reported 15-25% rigging for the Republicans in
the elections of the council, but there was rigging for the Bargavach
Hayastan Party, Orinats Yerkir Party and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun. Thus,
a simple sum shows that the Congress passed the threshold of 40%
required for victory, getting about 50-60%. So, we win both the
presidential and the elections of Yerevan council. Third, thus we have
an unlawful government from the lowest upward and nobody in the world
and in Armenia doubts its illegitimacy (after these revelations). The
revealed scope of rigging proves that Armenia has no elections but a
machine for usurping government. It is clear that our job is to
dismantle this machine,’ stated Levon Zurabyan at the rally of the
Armenian National Congress on September 9.