“It happened that we are returning to the old times and having problematic elections,” about this of 168.am said in a conversation with human rights defender Vardan Harutyunyanspeaking about the national elections held in Armenia on June 7, its results and the decision of the Central Electoral Commission regarding the PAP.

According to the human rights defender, regardless of the circumstances of what kind of violations there were, who committed those violations, etc., it is not important, the important thing is that the behavior of the current authorities, the public statements, the style of the statements indicate that these elections are problematic.

“This is already a very serious problem, from which it is not the government that should come out, but the problem will be burdened on RA’s shoulders,” added our interlocutor.

In the created situation, according to the human rights defender, the opposition should be able to protect its interests, which is the function of the opposition.

“Developments are political and require political or politicized steps. I cannot say anything about the rest, it is for the opposition to decide, they must say what they will do.

We have a situation where the opposition should take the next step. Basically, the government has taken its step, made the statements, and all those statements have a problem with the law, I already said, both the style and the content. That’s all, it’s a very sad situation,” stressed Vardan Harutyunyan.

Vardan Harutyunyan replied to the question: in the past, when elections were held in Armenia, which the opposition complained about, various international structures started making statements condemning the authorities of the day, isn’t today’s silence on the part of international structures surprising?

“There will still be evaluations by international structures, it’s not like this silence will last forever. It is clear that, taking into account various diplomatic, political and regional issues, as well as the issues of the West, which in some places may turn a blind eye, and in some places remain silent, there will come a moment when that silence will no longer be there.

Various international structures, election monitoring organizations will still have their say.

Previously, the opposition and government forces participating in our elections were highly politicized, but today we have an opposition that is essentially ignorant of political processes, has never been involved in these processes, and is not politicized. They have no experience of political struggle, at least the first number of the opposition is like that, and the second and third numbers are more or less.

They must be able to politicize everything, generate it, organize it in such a way that people follow them, or these developments have certain developments. I don’t want to blame too much, but the lack of politics speaks for itself,” emphasized Vardan Harutyunyan.

Let’s remind that according to the preliminary results of the nationwide elections on June 7, the “Prosperous Armenia” party received 4% of votes, according to which it would enter the parliament. However, the Central Electoral Commission invalidated the voting results of 3 polling stations, after which the PAP lost 213 votes and was excluded from the National Assembly. After that, the opposition held a protest in front of the CEC building, demanding re-voting or new elections.

—