The local government elections of Armavir, March 25, during which it was supposed to determine which governmental party is stronger, skipped the attention of the media because of the death of the Prime Minister, Andranik Margaryan, who died on the same day. However, it was clear in the beginning that the defeated party would definitely accuse the winner of election violations. It happened that way.
A political ally of businessman Gagik Tsarukyan has asked an Armenian court to annul the official results of a weekend mayoral election in the southern town of Armavir that was controversially won by a candidate of the governing Republican Party (RPA). Arayik Aghababyan, a regional leader of Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), was narrowly defeated by Armavir’s incumbent mayor Ruben Khlghatyan in a first-ever election face-off between Armenia’s two largest establishment parties. His defeat came as a serious setback for the BHK and its top leader, who had spent heavily on Aghababyan’s election campaign. It could also have implications for the party’s performance in the May 12 parliamentary elections. Aghababyan refused to concede defeat, alleging widespread voting irregularities. However, he failed to lodge any formal complaints to the local election commission and took legal action instead. “I wasn’t sure the commission would meet my demands,” he explained on March 30. Aghababyan refused to detail the alleged irregularities, which he claims robbed him of victory in the town 30 kilometers southwest of Yerevan. “We will publicize everything during court hearings,” he said. “I don’t want to reveal secrets to you right now.” According to the official results, Khlghatyan garnered almost 53 percent of the vote, against Aghababyan’s 43 percent. The mayor, who is affiliated with the RPA, insists that he won fair and square. The RPA and the BHK are seen as the top frontrunners in the unfolding Armenian parliamentary race. The latter is looking to capitalize on its wealthy leader’s vast financial resources, while the Republicans, led by Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan, are expected to make the most of their control of most local governments. The BHK is increasingly viewed by commentators as the new power base of President Robert Kocharyan.
Let’s remind that RPA candidate Khlghatyan has received 8322 votes during elections and Aghababyan received 6844. Aghababyan said that he had applied to the court because he had noticed some deviousness during the election, the result of which 4000 illegal votes were given to RPA candidate. However, yesterday we found out from the CEC that neither the CEC nor 21 TEC have received any complaints about the procedures of the March 25 election. But prior to the court trial on Monday the Passport Bureau of Armavir was being inspected. The thing is that BHK is accusing the RPA of registering the residents of Talin in Armavir for “two days” so that they could participate in elections. That is the purpose of the inspection of the passport bureau. However, according to our sources the BHK was not able to find even a single case of such quick registration during inspections. Moreover, the number of the residents of Armavir since January 1 has increased only by 200-300, mainly because of the return of military personnel.
According to our information, nothing like this would have happened if Aghababyan has not insured the BHK leadership that in the event of supporting him he would have a great victory during elections. Because of those promises BHK chairman Gagik Tsarukyan spent a large sum of money to organize the concert of Russian pop star Shufutinski in Armavir to sing on behalf of Aghababyan. If there were no promises, perhaps the BHK wouldn’t have nominated its candidate in Armavir against the governmental party RPA, since it was agreed to not run against each other. Now it’s Aghababyan’s turn to explain and report the reasons of the victory, because it’s obvious that BHK didn’t benefit from such a defeat prior to the Parliamentary Elections of May 12. That’s the reason why Aghababyan applied to the court, hoping that time will moderate the anger of the BHK leadership. However, let’s just wait for the court trial on Monday.
P.S. The RPA is sure that their candidate would have had more votes if their party chairman hadn’t tragically died. It didn’t happen because when they heard of the death of the Prime Minister, they all forgot about the elections and gathered at the headquarters of RPA.