PROSHIAN VOTE BEING CONTESTED

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Entrance to Proshian Village

PROSHIAN, Armenia-The results of a special mayoral elections held in
this village in the Kotayk Region Sunday are being contested, with
Vova Sahakian a candidate from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
appealing to the Central Electoral Commission to demand a recount of
the vote, which saw him in a close second to the Republican Party of
Armenia’s Artur Mouradyan.

Sahakian’s campaign manager Taron Tonoyan told pastinfo.am of the
decision to appeal the results, citing a tense environment of fraud
and bribery on election day.

Sahakian, himself, did not cite specific instances of the alleged
fraud, saying that once the official results are announced “the
necessary steps will be taken.”

The village of Proshian was holding special election Sunday to fill
the mayoral vacancy left by the April 2 murder of its previous mayor,
Hratch Mouradian, who was gunned down in front of the municipal
headquarters in the village center.

After the murder, which according to official statements is still
under investigation, locals alleged that Mourdian, a Karabakh War
veteran and an ARF member, was killed for political motives stemming
from disagreements with Republican Party factions in the village.

Mouradian’s family endorsed Sahakian in the election. The latter
garnered 1,241 votes to his opponent’s 1,371 votes, according to
preliminary results.

Weeks after the murder, the Karabakh War Memorial in the city was
desecrated on the day of Mouradian’s 40th memorial. On the same
day, pictures of Mouradian were defaced with derogatory statements
spray-painted on them.

One news outlet, 7or.am, in covering Sunday’s election observed that
the village changed its leadership through murder.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress