It is perhaps no secret to anyone that electoral bribes were distributed days before the elections and on Election Day in Armenia and the political parties distributing electoral bribes were the Armenian Republican Party (ARP), the “Prosperous Armenia” party (PA), the United Labor Party (ULP), “Country of Law” (CL)…
They were distributing electoral bribes in order to have citizens vote for the many candidates nominated under the majoritarian electoral system (in fact, there was a statement made on May 12 according to which CL member Samvel Balasanyan, who won in his precinct based on official data, was distributing electoral bribes just like the ARP and PA members). It turns out that “Country of Law” had applied to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) concerning the massive distribution of electoral bribes, but later the CEC sent a written response saying that after the checking into this, it was registered that no electoral bribes have been distributed in Armenia. This is what leader of CL Arthur Baghdasaryan informed during a press conference held on Wednesday.
Interesting: don’t the members of the CEC know that a criminal case must be filed for even one distribution of an electoral bribe? Fine, let’s move on.
Baghdasaryan also informed on Wednesday that their party has video-tapings showing certain individuals taking the money and going to vote and they are getting ready to show them under the constituted order during the court hearings. As he stated his evaluations for the elections, he repeated the statement made by CL days ago regarding debating the parliamentary election results in the Constitutional Court and added that they are also going to file a lawsuit to the first instance courts against the polling station electoral commissions that disapproved the applications of CL for groundless reasons. According to Baghdasaryan, during the election campaign CL did not have equal opportunities for getting its message across to the people. Baghdasaryan mentioned numerous registered cases of violations, including electoral bribes, votes with the same pen, and electricity shutdowns during the counts, multi-votes, etc. He considers the shutdowns, stopping the count for nearly an hour, and the fact that CL didn’t receive any votes in nearly 400 polling stations (which he considers impossible) as especially surprising and strange.
“We have facts; the results of the elections in the polling stations of Armavir and Lori Marz were not formed by the polling station electoral commission, rather the PEC. They intimidated people. We have information according to which there were clear warnings to reduce the votes of CL,” he mentioned, adding that as a result of a recount in one of the abovementioned 400 polling stations, CL’s votes went from zero to 123. The CL leader also mentioned that unlike the previous elections, this time the powerful organizations’ pressures on the candidates nominated under the majoritarian system were not the rule, but the exception. According to Baghdasaryan, the same was true for ballot box stuffing.
“The violations were not committed in the polling stations, rather outside. A day before the elections, money was distributed nationwide and that changed the situation,” said Baghdasaryan. The latter believes that it is good that the opposition parties collected 450,000 votes altogether.
“This means that the opposition must unite. We foresee applying to the Constitutional Court and the first instance courts so that we can have a review of the election results of Armenia, and a recount, because we are certain that electoral falsifications took place in many polling stations. We are calling on all Armenian opposition parties that have facts regarding the electoral falsifications to provide the CL with those facts. We are ready to synthesize all the facts, and everybody’s interests, and defend the interests of the opposition in the Constitutional Court and restore legality and justice,” announced Baghdasaryan and added: “Yes, there are many citizens in the country who took money and went and voted.”
Interesting: why does Arthur Baghdasaryan apply to the instance courts in one case, yet another time doesn’t apply, due to the well-known situation of the judicial system in Armenia? Let us recall that after the secret recording of the conversation between Arthur Baghdasaryan and the deputy ambassador to Great Britain in Armenia, the leader of CL explained why he hadn’t appealed to instance courts for the violation of his rights and the illegal secret recording, stating that “justice is not on solid ground” in Armenia. This was almost how he explained his reason for not appealing to the court for his being named a traitor by Robert Kocharyan.
If the CL trusts and appeals to the courts for the elections, then why doesn’t Baghdasaryan appeal for the above-mentioned cases? This question irritated the CL leader a little. He had this to say to that question:
“Whom should I appeal to? Who is it? Who is the subject? To whom am I appealing in the court? Who is the subject? Who conducted the secret recording? Whom can I appeal to in court? Who is the subject?”
One of the journalists present reminded him that, for example, Robert Kocharyan is the subject for calling him a “traitor” and he can sue Kocharyan for that. Baghdasaryan said the following to that observation:
“Robert Kocharyan said that and I responded to him publicly. This is debate is out in the open.”
Then he mentioned that we all know the situation of the judicial system of Armenia, but added:
“We are going to appeal to the Constitutional Court.”
When journalists asked him once again why he is not appealing to the court for the secret recording and the case regarding Robert Kocharyan, he said:
“Now we are talking about the elections and the Constitutional Court. My friends, this is different.” He also assured that the publication of the secret recording has not had an impact on the reputation of CL, but the number of partisans has gone up. In fact, CL is not planning to drop the 8-9 mandates that it already has in the National Assembly.