On Saturday there were elections in Territorial District 15 (Talin city) for a seat under majoritarian system. To note, on May 12 the chair of “Max Group” company, businessman Khachik Manukyan won the rival in this territorial district. However, the latter dropped his mandate reasoning that he didn’t want to give place to rumors about the legitimacy of the elections.
Mr. Manukyan run during the recent elections in the same territorial district and again won the rival with majority of votes. According to the official information, 36.394 (60,5%) voters out of 60.138 voters in that precinct participated in the elections. According to the preliminary information, Mr. Manukyan received 16.121 votes, and the mayor of Talin city, Mnatsakan Mnatsakanyan received 10.067 votes. M. Mnatsakanyan was unofficially backed by “Prosperous Armenia” party. ARF representative Gurgen Shahinyan received 7248 votes. The head of “Heritage” party, Raffi Hovhannisyan received 1220, and the other candidates were given a fewer number of votes (Emin Karapetyan 518, Vahagn Petrosyan – 96). On the election day there were policemen with truncheons in the precinct. There was an incident in Ujan village community, where, as radio “Liberty” reports, the supporters of the ARF-member candidate caused a conflict in the polling station (G. Shahinyan was born in Ujan). The police interfered and stopped the conflict. It seems that there haven’t been other incidents; neither there have been any complaints. We wander what the winner, Mr. Manukyan thinks about the process of elections. “It was quite normal and controllable. Everything passed in a clear and quiet environment”, yesterday said Kh. Manukyan during our conversation and added, “There have been no complaints. I was just informed by the commission that there haven’t been any complaints before 2 o’clock and that they held a session and registered me as a deputy”. We also were informed that none of Manukyan’s competitors had called and congratulated him. ARF, which nominated its candidate, and PA party, which supported one of the candidates, refrain from giving any information concerning the elections. Notwithstanding, “Heritage” party reacted in a very fast and controversial manner concerning the voting process. Yesterday Hovsep Khurshudyan, the spokesman of this party, announced that they believed “the elections in Precinct 15 had not proceeded in fair and free conditions”. “Here the candidates had a goal to become deputy and were doing everything. The situation was like a party during plague”, said H. Khurshudyan to us during our conversation. According to him, the first three candidates receiving the most number of votes “were actively distributing bribe to voters”. “Even those, who were sure that they were going to vote for our candidate, sold their votes against 20 thousand dram”, said H.Khurshudyan and added that in that precinct, besides electoral bribery, “also administrative resources were used massively”. Following Khurshudyan’s statement Raffi Hovhannisyan made an announcement too. The announcement of the leader of “Heritage” party contains strange ideas. The problem is that at the beginning of the announcement R. Hovhannisyan informs how bad the elections were organized. This is not strange; alas, in our country the process of elections has not grown up to the level of being democratic and in compliance with the international standards. The strangest, i.e. the unexpected part of the announcement is the concluding part. “The electoral processes and the results of the elections organized in Territorial District 15 for a seat under majoritarian system are in the history now not having been passed in free and fair conditions and having passed with different electoral violations and use of administrative resources. There is no need to draw details; everything happened openly witnessed by people. I hope the authorities of the republic, through all their different levels, will carry their duties in a fair and better manner and will respect people”, writes the “Heritage” leader’s announcement, “However, I’d like to congratulate the winner, Khachik Manukyan and wish him all the best in following his bright mission to serve the citizens of Territorial District 15”. To note, yesterday we informed Kh. Manukyan that Raffi Hovhannisyan had made an announcement and congratulated him, who thanked Raffi Hovhannisyan.