AUTONOMY APPEAL FACES PARLIAMENT MEMBER’S BACKLASH
Armenpress
Sept 26, 2005
TBILISI, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: An application of Armenian
organizations in southern Georgia demanding autonomy for a
predominantly-Armenian populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti faced
a strong backlash from an Armenian member of the Georgian parliament,
Van Bayburdian.
The appeal was issued by a congress of Armenian organizations of the
Samtskhe-Javakheti region held in the town of Akhalkalaki Saturday.
Bayburdian , who is also chairman of the Union of Georgian Armenians,
said the appeal was’ groundless,” as the population of Ninotsminda
and Akhalkalaki regions, where the majority are ethnic Armenians,
‘have full authority to govern their regions.”
He said there are more than 100 Armenian schools in the region and
Armenians are represented in Georgian government bodies and have
five members in the parliament. He also said there was no tendency
to discriminate Armenians because of their ethnicity. He said all
Georgian regions face dire economic conditions, but the government
is committed to resolve them. “One should not politicize social and
economic problems of the region, a wrong policy assumed by some local
Armenian organizations,” he said.

CEC ANNOUNCES COMMUNITY HEAD ELECTION RESULTS IN TWO YEREVAN DISTRICTS
Armenpress
Sept 26, 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Central Election Commission
(CEC) said the incumbent prefect of Kentron district in Yerevan,
Gagik Beglarian, won community head election in Sunday polls receiving
32,000 votes, his contender Ruzan Khachatrian from the opposition
People’s Party received 4,430 votes. The voter turnout was 43 percent.
In another community head election Hovhanes Shahinian won the polls
in Yerevan Arabkir community. He received 18,215 votes. Out of 97,00
eligible voters in Arabkir district only 28,000 went to the polls.

ARMENIAN AIRCRAFT CREW SUSPECTED OF SMUGGLING
Armenpress
Sept 26, 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: A commercial manager of Armenia’s
biggest private carrier, ArmAvia, denied Friday rumors that the
Armenian crew operating Yerevan-Paris-Yerevan flight had been arrested
by French customs officers a week before, but admitted that the crew
had had some problems with customs officers.
The manager, Arthur Zakarian, said the crew were taken to the customs
office for examination, which showed that they breached some of
customs norms, established by French law. Zakarian said the pilots
were trying to bring from France more cigarettes than allowed by
customs regulations.
He said ArmAvia is carrying an internal investigation. He said the
crew are banned from operating flights, adding that the amount of
cigarettes the pilots were trying to take out of France was small.

EVERYTHING IS FINE?
A1+
| 17:06:07 | 25-09-2005 | Politics |
The candidate for the post of the Kentron community head Rouzan
Khachatryan represented a complaint to the Local Electoral Committee
according to which in the community the number of the electors exceeds
2000, the Kentron Local Electoral Committee informs.
The Arabkir Local Electoral Committee received several alarms but they
were not proved in the electoral areas. For example, there was a false
alarm about the head of the committee arguing with the confidants of
the candidates. Another one about the loss of the seal was also false.
In the Davtashen, Shengavit and Avan communities there have been only
problems with the electoral rolls.

MERRY-GO-ROUND WORKING ALREADY
A1+
| 20:24:42 | 25-09-2005 | Politics |
Today at about 05:00 p.m. in the electoral area 9/15 located in the
school after Dzerzhinsky we met three young people who had about 10
passports in their hands. They had brought young girls to the area
and told them literally, “This photo is like you, you will elect with
this passport”.
The group entered the area and carried out the act of electing; Bella
Sargsyan who checked their passports, claimed that they were with
their passports. And when the head of the Committee David Tovmasyan
learned our story about what we had heard, he was indignant and said
we should have prevented the violation of law.
And the confidant of the aldermen candidate Vram Ghazaryan, realizing
immediately what was going on approached one of the young people who
had brought the girls and complained of “the quality of their work”,
“Can’t you be more careful?”.
We did not manage to find out the name of Vram Ghazaryan’s confidant,
as everyone, including the head of the Committee refused to tell his
name. The latter did not even appear, hiding in the school basement
all the time.

WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE POLICEMEN?
A1+
| 20:07:39 | 25-09-2005 | Politics |
Today in almost all the electoral areas of the Kentron community one
could see the same: there were at least three policemen at the center
of the hall near the ballot-boxes.
Surprisingly not only the pro-authority, but also the oppositional
candidates’ confidants and the members of the Committees were not
worried about the fact. The policemen themselves whom we naturally
managed to see from backside only, claimed that they are keeping order.
By the way, we learned from the pre-election campaign of Rouzan
Khachatryan that her confidant Sona Mouradyan has been ousted from
the electoral area 9/14. She only tried to prevent violations of law
in the above mentioned area.

NO NEWS FROM ARABKIR
A1+
| 19:55:28 | 25-09-2005 | Politics |
At 05:00 p.m. the Central Electoral Committee has no new information
about the number of voters in Arabkir. In Kentron community 29 980 of
the 85 thousand electors have already voted. In the other communities
the scene is the following: Ajapnyak – 17 077 from 71 615, Davtashen
– 9 000 from 25 481, Avan – 9 455 from 34 746, Malatia-Sebastia –
22 600 from 84 493, Shengavit – 10 500 from 95 140.
In Shengavit the electors are still the most passive of all: only 11%
of them have voted so far. The highest level of activity has been
recorded in Kentron and Davtashen – more than 35% of the electors
has participated in the elections.
By the way, there have been cases when the citizens called the Central
Electoral Committee to learn whether they can vote with the old Soviet
red passports, or where their electoral area is.

FIRST RESULTS ARE KNOWN
A1+
| 12:04:18 | 26-09-2005 | Politics |
The preliminary results of the elections are already known:
particularly the journalist of “A1+” was present in the Kenton
electoral area 9/32 located in the school after Charents where 451
of the 553 electors voted for Gagik Beglaryan, and 80 – for Rouzan
Khachatryan. 20 ballots were considered invalid.
We also have approximate data from the Central Electoral Committee
about the participation of electors. According to them, in Ajapnyak
32% of electors have participated, in Davtashen – 41%, in Avan – 33%,
in Malatia-Sebastia – 34%, in Kenton – 43%, an Shengavit – 12%,and
in Arabkir – 31.7%. That is, not even half of the total number of
voters has participated in the elections.

ROUZAN KHACHATRYAN IS DISCONTENT
A1+
| 11:36:15 | 26-09-2005 | Politics |
According to the Kenton community head candidate Rouzan Khachatryan,
before the elections the head of the Central Electoral Committee
Garegin Azaryan gathered together all the heads of the 9th electoral
area and ordered to give the right to check passports to only two
member of the Committee.
“In several electoral areas the number of the electors has been more
than the allowed number, there have even been open votings”, said
Rouzan Khachatryan in a press conference right after the elections.
The most grave violation, according to her, was the way the confidants
got their certificates: according to the stipulated order, it must
be mentioned in the certificate whose confidant a person is, and
the names must be mentioned in the headquarters of the corresponding
candidate. But the heads of the areas ordered to mention the names
of the confidants in the certificates.
Today Rouzan Khachatryan expressed her discontent with Garegin
Azaryan and said that Justice bloc will by all means call him to
responsibility. There is information according to which a man has
voted with a woman’s passport.
Asked by the journalists how much money she has spent on her
pre-election campaign, Rouzan Khachatryan answered, “I have spent as
many millions in drams as my competitor has spent in dollars”.
Nevertheless, Rouzan Khachatryan did not exclude the possibility of
changing her opinion about the electoral phase after the announcement
of the finals results of the elections.

ELECTIONS ARE OVER
A1+
| 22:27:01 | 25-09-2005 | Politics |
The elections of local governing bodies are over. The Central Electoral
Committee informed us that in Davtashen 41% of the electors have
participated in the elections, in Malatia-Sebastia – 34%, in Avan –
33%, and in Shengavit – 12%.
At 09:15 there was no information about the participation of electors
in Kentron and Arabkir.
By the way, in the electoral area 9/32 which is located in the school
after Charents the ballot boxes are not yet open.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress