Based on preliminary results, defeated Nagorno-Karabakh presidential candidate and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, Masis Mailyan, accepts his loss and is preparing to congratulate the newly elected president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, over the telephone. However, Mailyan will do so only after the publication of the final election results.
Mailyan dispersed an announcement Friday, mentioning that he participated in the elections “in the name of the young democracy of Artsakh” where his role was to be merely the alternative candidate.
“We solved one of the issues facing us, which was the conduct of real, alternative elections and the preservation of the democratic image of Nagorno-Karabakh, based on that. Our contribution is serious, and successful, and that is already a victory. Our team did everything it could to give our citizens the opportunity for real elections, and to conduct legal elections. As far as electoral violations are concerned, our principal position and purpose was aimed at securing the victory of legality and lawfulness in our country,” as stated in Mailyan’s announcement. Mailyan, whose colleagues, until Friday, announced that he had no serious opponent in Nagorno-Karabakh, considers his 8,000 votes as a victory.
“In the current situation, including the situation of the inequality of resources, I consider my 8,000 votes as a serious achievement. There were many electoral violations during the campaign, and on the day of the elections. My pre-election headquarters appealed to the Central Electoral Commission four times before July 19, and nearly 20 times on July 19, the day of the elections. The various types of violations, of course, have had an impact on the results of the elections, but it should be mentioned that they were not decisive,” states Mailyan.
On Friday, Mailyan told “168 Hours” that he will not appeal the results.
“We have given our data on the violations to the CEC, and expect to get a response. They must follow up and make sure the guilty are punished,” said Mailyan, underlining that the violations registered by them could not have had any impact on the election results.
“We proposed an alternative to the people. We believe that that was an election between the present and the future. A considerable part of the population chose the present. We understand that the current situation has had a serious impact on the public’s mood, but at the same time, we cannot accept that that was done consciously. People could have behaved differently, but didn’t. That is their right. We respect that right and accept their choice. I respect the choice of my people,” mentioned Mailyan.
Will you congratulate Bako Sahakyan? Mailyan had this to say about that:
“Yes, I am going to congratulate him. It is just that the law asks for 24 hours, so that the CEC can publish the final election results. After that I will call him and congratulate him.”
Masis Mailyan, who had given up the office of Deputy Foreign Minister “in the name of the young democracy of Artsakh”, doesn’t know what he is going to do now. He still hasn’t decided whether he will continue his political activity in the opposition or not.
“I don’t know if I will be in the opposition or not. I have to relax a little, and analyze what happened. After that, no posibility is excluded,” mentioned Mailyan. In response to the question as to whether or not he had calculated his possibilities before running for president, Mailyan said:
“I had done the calculations, but the administrative resources were being used, and this time it was reaching unprecedented heights. There were other factors and, of course, that is why the results did not correspond to our calculations.”
According to the former Deputy Foreign Minister, unlike his opponent, head of the National Security Service of Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, he didn’t use his perhaps modest administrative resources.
“No, I did not use any administrative resources, because I didn’t have the desire to do so. First of all, I didn’t use it because it was illegal, and secondly, I have been on leave for a long time now. Besides that, what is the administrative resource at the Foreign Affairs Ministry? Could it be that the administration is not under my leadership? Could it be that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn’t have its subdivisions…? If they say that Bako Sahakyan used his administrative resources, that doesn’t mean that Bako Sahakyan used them. No, I say that the administrative resources were used in favor of him, and you know who his supporting parties are, so there is nothing to compare here,” said Mailyan.
Before the presidential elections, Sahakyan had announced that if he is elected, he must appoint his teammates as government officials, based on “political culture”. Will Mailyan work with Bako Sahakyan’s team? The basically unemployed Mailyan said:
“First of all, nobody has made me any offeres, and secondly, I have to see whom Bako Sahakyan appoints, and then make my decision.”