Armenian Ombudsman concerned over growing intolerance and hatred during pre-election campaign

Marianna Mkrtchyan. Armenian Human Rights Defender Armen Tatoyan is familiar with publications where the Republican Party draws attention to the manifestation of hatred by government official, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the election campaign.

Thus, answering to the journalists, whether the Ombudsman is familiar with the call voiced by the RPA and what is being done in this direction by the office of the Ombudsman, Tatoyan assured that he is familiar with these publications and not only with them. He recalled that the Ombudsman’s office has established an independent working group that conducts round-the-clock monitoring of the electoral process. “Without focusing on anyone, I would like to note in general that, unfortunately, in this area we are registering an increase in intolerance and hatred. This is a matter of concern, and I believe that the election campaign should go in a different direction. I do not want to give any assessment of the pre-election process, this issue is not in my competence, but all of this affects issues related to freedom of speech. Manifestations of hatred, insults that are voiced by individuals in social networks and the fact that the institution of fake users is developing even more, cause concern, “the Ombudsman of Armenia said.

At the same time, he informed that their monitoring already indicates that mostly fake users spread hatred of dissenting opinion.

Touching upon violations during the pre-election campaign, Tatoyan noted that at the moment violations have already been registered now the Ombudsman’s office sums up the results and then surely will make a statement where attention will be paid to several areas.

To note, yesterday the RPA made a statement in which it stressed that a number of statements voiced by Acting Prime Minister on November 26 and 27, are the most vivid manifestation of the words of hatred that cross all permissible boundaries of the political struggle, flout a number of principles of humanism and morality, for example, when a woman becomes a target. According to the source, such behavior is unprecedented in the political culture of the country, especially on the part of a high-ranking official, and this is the prime minister responsible for the safety and well-being of every citizen. “We already had a reason to address the abuse of administrative resources by the acting Prime Minister, another obvious example of which is that while officially on vacation, the acting Prime Minister voices threats against elected officials, and the police, in fact, gives instructions that are to be followed mandatory. We call on the Central Election Commission of Armenia, the Human Rights Defender of Armenia and international observation missions to pay attention to the speeches, behavior and rhetoric of the Acting Prime Minister of the country, “the statement of the Republican Party of Armenia reads.