“In the past there have been many times when the authorities have created obstacles for the campaign. At the time there was also the opinion that there should not be any obstacles; that the more you create obstacles, the more you hurt yourself. Today we see that there are no obstacles; we can already see that there is less interest by the masses. Whatever you create obstacles for, you get more of the opposite. In this case, the people get more interested,” said leader of the Armenian Republican parliamentary faction Galust Sahakyan during the subsequent debate at the “Pressing” club attached to “168 Hours”. We tried to find out from some candidates for parliament of the majority and proportional electoral system whether or not there were any obstacles created for them by the local authorities. Leader of the “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan said that when their party went to the Armavir Marz, people were saying that many village heads and policemen had arranged it so that nobody would come to their meeting. According to Karapetyan, the data are being checked and nothing is clear yet, but he says that the people were saying that people had been seriously frightened, and were terrified that “if they came to the meeting, they would not have any water, etc.”
“I don’t have precise information, and we are trying to find the names of the people who made those comments. I can’t say anything now,” said Karapetyan.
Leader of the “Armenian Liberal Progressive Party” Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, who was nominated by the majority electoral system in the 5th precinct of the Arabkir district, mentioned that there is no serious obstacle at the moment, and that “things are normal, especially in Arabkir.”
“We have had some problems in the Davitashen district, but I don’t think that they are serious problems,” said the leader of ALPP. According to him, that problem which wasn’t serious was that the head of the place where the party had established its headquarters “had terrorized or he had been terrorized himself”; he had asked to move the headquarters and the ALPP had done just that. However, the ALPP leader doesn’t consider that a serious problem.
Representative of the “Impeachment” alliance Nikol Pashinyan mentioned that nothing serious had happened after their public meeting in Vanadzor. Member of the Armenian National Movement administration Aram Manukyan, who is nominated by the majority electoral system in the 4th precinct of the Arabkir district, said that he has not faced any obstacles by the district authorities. According to him, the district head in their precinct was even in the role of a supporter. However, things are different in the 30th precinct of Vanadzor. According to the candidate nominated in that precinct, Victor Dallakyan, the principals of school number 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18 and 19 have prohibited Dallakyan to meet with the school staffs. The driving school director of Vanadzor has also forbidden Dallakyan from meeting with the staff.
“My representative calls, says that V. Dallakyan wants to meet with your staff at a suitable hour, and they say no,” said Dallakyan, adding that there are no grounds whatsoever for that “no”.
“They said ‘we don’t need meetings’, ‘tell the head of the Marz ’, etc.” said Dallakyan.
According to the latter, last week his representative had arranged with the principal of school number 11 of Vanadzor to meet with the staff on April 18th at 5:00 p.m. However, in the morning of the day of the meeting, based on Dallakyan’s information, the representative of the school principal called and said that the meeting would not take place. According to Dallakyan, the husband of that school principal is Minas Sayadyan, who is the president of the electoral commission of the 30th precinct.