According to recent statistics, the population of Vanadzor has barely reached the 100 thousand mark. However, after the district elections which took place on October 16th, it was clear that there were 101 thousand people in Vanadzor of which 47 actually participated in the elections. That is why the media did not state the number of polls in Vanadzor before the elections because in that case it had to state the number of voters and there would be rumors flying around. There had been changes made in 10 polls, but people found out about that only one night before the elections via television. Basically, according to the citizens, some voters did not have the opportunity to make sure where their polls were and very few voters were sent information regarding the elections. Also, another group of voters found out that they were not enlisted to vote at the last minute (not including the names of the deceased). As a result, there was a big line in front of the 1st instance court in the Lori region on October 16th and some citizens had the chance to get enlisted to vote by the decision made by the court. (A woman from the #9 poll suffered a sudden death after going here and there from the court to the poll). Judging from the fact that the number of voters does not correspond with the number of people living in Vanadzor, that there was a large number of people who voted for present day mayor and candidate S. Darbinyan, we can agree that some people “cheated” in voting for the mayor. The number of “invalid” ballots is higly doubtful (approximately 1600) because it is not too difficult to present an “invalid” ballot in any poll.
