Yesterday everything was quiet in Armavir till the moment when only a few minutes remained before the court hearing of the appeal of the candidate of Prosperous Armenia Party, Arayik Aghababyan.
Thirty minutes prior to the court trial, there was almost no room to stand in front of the courthouse. The SUVs and foreign-produced cars almost blocked the whole street. Let’s remember that RPA candidate, Ruben Khlghatyan, and Prosperous Armenia candidate Arayik Aghababyan were running against each other.
Prior to the court hearing
As Prosperous Armenia decided to keep secret the claims of its candidate, we decided to go to TEC 21 prior to the court trial to find out exactly what part of the elections Aghababyan had complained about. TEC chairperson Gayane Sukiasyan informed us that Aghababyan especially complained about electoral lists and double voting. TEC 21 was supposed to act as a defendant during the court trial. RPA candidate and election winner Khlghatyan was also invited as a defendant. At the court trial Sukiasyan announced that she didn’t see any reason the election results should be annulled because during the elections the TEC hadn’t received a single appeal or complaint. “If they think there were inaccuracies in the lists why didn’t they check them when they had the chance during those 40 days, as they had those lists in their hands, to be verified with the passport bureau of Armavir,” said Sukiasyan, also assuring that TEC cannot have any connection with electoral lists. “They don’t even know that the lists are appealed not in TEC but at the passport bureau,” said the chair of TEC 21.
Prior to the court trial we also managed to go to Aghababyan’s election headquarters. Aghababyan was still resisting telling us what his demands were. In his press conference, Aghababyan announced that the Republicans had “cheated” a lot. That’s why we asked what exactly RPA had cheated on. In response, Aghababyan said “I means falsifications. The violations are so many and so varied that it’s very hard to track all of them down. I wouldn’t like to mention it now. I’ll say it in the court.” We also asked him why they haven’t productively used the 40-day period to examine the voter lists. “They make final voter lists even after 40 days. They have found some new ways of violations,” he said. As a response to our question whether the competitors have made another list besides the official one, Aghababyan answered, “After the elections many new things were found out. Many people from all villages of the marz participated in the elections. They came, voted and left.” It wasn’t clear to us why their proxies have not prepared protocols about those facts. Aghababyan, who refused to tell us anything before the court trial, didn’t say much about that even during the trial.
Prior to those elections, Aghababyan had tried three times to be elected head of community in Armavir, and attempted twice to be elected MP. However he has had no success thus far. The first time he was nominated as a candidate for the head of community was in 1999; second time in 2002 and third – in 2004. He was nominated a parliamentary candidate in 1999 and 2003. In Armavir, people say that he has changed parties depending on how powerful the parties were in the given campaign period. They say he used to be an ANM member, Dashnaktsutyun member, member of Hrant Vardanyan’s “Labor and Unity” party; became an RPA member in 2001, and during the elections for mayor he was in the ULP, which was supporting him during elections. And now he’s a member of the Prosperous Armenia party. However, he denies that he’s been a member of any other party besides ANM and Prosperous Armenia. “Starting from 1988 I haven’t been a member of any party. I was in the movement, and used to be an ANM member. During my nominations, several parties supported me but it doesn’t mean that I was a member of those parties. My competitor, more accurately my opponent, because our elections are beyond civilized manners of competition, has probably slandered me, by saying that I used to be in different parties. But it’s not so. I was a member of ANM and now Prosperous Armenia. Since 1988 I have been a member of no party. All those rumors are not true. I represent myself to people but they instead slander me,” says Aghababyan. However, we succeeded to find out that Aghababyan, in accordance to his application, applied to become an RPA member in 04.12.2001. However, some time later he was fired from RPA. The reason he avoids his historical archives is hard to tell.
Yesterday Aghababyan assured that all the elections had the same epilogue for him. He has protested and sent an appeal to the court but his claims have never been satisfied. “I have become a victim of such deviousness every time I sued them. How can I explain this? In 1999 I won the elections but they brought people to the precinct and made them vote on their behalf,” Aghababyan said, complaining about his bad luck. According to the latter, last week they held a so-called census in Armavir. “I have checked about 30-40% of the population, which showed 5000 people less. We went door-to-door but decided to check and make sure,” he said. This is how he tried to justify the reason he had applied to the court against the TEC 21 and not the passport bureau. “We demand that they annul the decision, as they were the ones who made it,” he said.
At the court
During the court trial, the authorized representative of Aghababyan said that they have suspicions about 30% of the precincts, which in their opinion affected the results of the election. The latter announced that the number of the residents of Armavir is 28000 and the number of voters in the electoral lists was 26000, which can never be true. There are about 10000 residents below 18 in Armavir. “The number of voters in Armavir may only reach 18000,” said Aghababyan’s representative. On March 30 Aghababyan presented mediation to the court demanding that the TEC 21 present the voter lists and the voting registers of the election. Yesterday the court satisfied the appeal, which consisted of 5 points by deciding to open three stamped envelopes of three random precincts and to examine whether the statements of the plaintiff are truthful. It was decided to open the envelopes of precincts 5, 9 and 12. And when the box of protocols of all 15 precincts of Armavir was brought to court, the chairman of the court Simonyan ordered to solve the “issue of journalists.” It means opening the final envelopes without our presence. According to our information yesterday they managed to examine the results of only one precinct. According to the same source there were no essential violations there.
The chief of police of Armavir, Ashot Gevorgyan, was also invited to yesterday’s session. The latter was really surprised how people from other marzes could be registered in Armavir. “I am surprised how one or even two people from other marzes could be registered in Armavir. The person may be registered in Armavir, but if he lives in Yerevan or Talin it shouldn’t be the business of the police. We certified the registered people,” said the chief of police. As a response to the complaint of the plaintiff about the 100 dead people in the voter list, Gevorgyan said that it’s impossible because they take the names of the dead persons out of the list immediately. The chief of police has also excluded the fact of the absent military personnel voting during the election. “If there is such a thing the ones who are guilty will definitely be punished. It’s impossible though,” he said. He later added that the passports of the military personnel are at the police station and no one can vote in place of them. Ruben Khlghatyan also made a speech at the court. He was demanding to retract Aghababyan’s suit by mentioning that none of the arguments presented by him were truthful. “There was a commission, which was formed by 4/5 proportion; the commission proportion was 6/3 on their behalf. Considering the fact that the mentioned candidate had proxies in the precinct and no complaints were submitted, we petition you to retract the court suit,” said Khlghatyan. “Do you doubt the data of the census of the country? Didn’t Armavir have the right to grow? And the ones who were 14-15 are not 18. We have 28000 voters and 15900 participated in the elections. What is so bad about having a 62% turnout? Mr. Aghababyan, what’s the difference between the voter lists of 2004 and the current ones? Why hasn’t your team examined those lists within 40 days? Where did you take those numbers from? If you have any evidence about that, please bring it up. But I suppose it’s the wish of only your team to invent such false data. Please hurry up with that process because for the past 4 days the residents of Armavir don’t have any peace. Your team members stop at their houses and ask who’s registered at their address.” As his questions were rhetoric they stayed without response. The court trial will continue today, during which it will become clear whether the RPA or Prosperous Armenia was victorious during the May 12 elections. At least, viewers say that this court trial will decide which party is more influential.
P.S. According to our information the Supervising Service of RA President and the prosecutor’s office of Baghramyan have been conducting inspections in Armavir for two days. We were not able to find out what they found out during those inspections. One more thing to mention – yesterday the two sides did not accuse each other of offering election bribes. However, according to the residents of the city, the loyalists of the candidates were giving bribes in front of the precincts on the voting day. Thus, election bribery is not considered illegal in Armavir anymore.