High voter activity, alleged minor irregularities as mayoral vote progresses in Hrazdan
12.02.12
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter, reporting from Hrazdan
Election officials report a high voter turnout midway through a
continuing mayoral poll in Hrazdan where supporters of the two rival
candidates have alleged only few separate irregularities in the
process so far.
The Election Commission in District 25 says more than a third of
Hrazdan’s nearly 44,000 eligible voters cast their ballots by 2 pm – a
fairly high voter activity for a local election, especially
considering the cold weather conditions and icy roads in most parts of
the town.
At least the early figures from Hrazdan appear to favorably compare to
those reported from some other communities where local elections are
being held today.
This situation, perhaps, reflects the keen competition in the town,
some 50 kilometers to the north-east of capital Yerevan, where the
incumbent mayor, Aram Danielyan, who has the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia behind him, is being challenged by Sasun Mikayelyan, a
charismatic Karabakh war veteran, former Hrazdan mayor and ex-lawmaker
now affiliated with the main opposition Armenian National Congress.
ArmeniaNow’s reporter spent some time at polling station 25/15 where
Mikayelyan’s proxy Myasnik Malkhasyan spoke about some irregularities
during the vote, but acknowledged that at least until early afternoon
the voting was proceeding calmly.
He, in particular, mentioned an incident in which some of the unused
ballot papers had to be canceled after certain marks were noticed on
them. In another case an election official `assisted’ a voter in
marking a ballot after the latter claimed to be experiencing some
sight problems. That ballot was canceled, however, and the voter was
allowed to vote again, this time marking the ballot paper and casting
it by himself. Malkhasyan also repeated the earlier complaints
connected with some of the ink pads and stamps that appeared to have
been used before (but should be new, according to what the law
says). The opposition candidate’s proxy was not satisfied with the
replaced ink pads, either.
Hrach Husikyan, the head of the polling precinct commission in
question, explained that the problem with some of the ink pads was
connected with low air temperature rather than their being used
before. On the whole, he said, the voting in his station was
proceeding well, without any extraordinary incidents.
Meanwhile, Kotayk governor Kovalenko Shahgeldyan, who has openly
backed the incumbent mayor in the race, claimed that a man attempted
to vote with someone else’s passport at polling station 25/19 and that
this man was a Mikayelyan supporter. The head of the election
commission in the mentioned precinct denied any such incident, as did
the representative of Mikayelyan at the precinct.
The current local elections and, in particular, the mayoral vote in
Hrazdan are viewed by many as a litmus test for the Armenian political
leadership’s commitment to hold a clean vote in the parliamentary
elections due in May.
While the process monitored by several observer groups and held amid
close media attention in Hrazdan appears to be going well so far, some
in the opposition and also among ordinary people in the street fear
lest the fairness of the vote be jeopardized by the vote counting that
is due to start after polling stations close at 8:00 pm.
The preliminary results in the vote are expected to become available
on Monday morning.