Within the framework of the criminal case brought up at the Special Investigative Service, the prosecutor’s office opened the packet of votes from the 8/05 polling station of Malatia-Sebastia community.
The experts, who were conducting the recount, mentioned at the beginning that the sack of the ballots was opened after being closed. This was the precinct where about 20 young people intruded, showed violence against journalists and monitor of the Transparency International organization Sona Ayvazyan. As a result they stuffed ballots. And now the prosecutor’s office decided that the ballots should be recounted in this precinct. Besides that the Special Investigative Service (SIS) launched a criminal case based on 150 Article of the Criminal Code relating to electoral violations. Within the framework of the criminal case brought up at the Special Investigative Service, the prosecutor’s office opened the packet stolen from the 8/01 polling station, which was open just like the packet of the 8/05 polling station. This means that the packet that was closed and stamped with all ballots, lists, valid and invalid ballots and envelopes was opened before it made it to the prosecutor’s office. On June 1 member of PEC #8/05, member of the RPA Norair Yeghiazaryan and a citizen Armen Ohanyan were arrested. For the purpose of the recount two experts were invited from the National Center of Expertise and three representatives from the Central Electoral Commission. The SIS asked the following questions – how many ballots are there in the box? Which ones are falsified? Which are the originals and who is the ballot voted for? “Does the number of all the ballots and coupons match with the results of the vote count as resisted in the PEC protocol? What is the difference? What were the methods of preparation of ballots submitted to expertise? Were they photocopied, printing machine or a computer printer, etc?” these are the questions of the SIS. During the preliminary expertise it turned out that the sack of RPA’s ballots was open. Seven invalid ballots and 15 copies were found inside valid ones. Experts announced that the ballots need to be sent to an additional study. In the package of unfilled ballots there were also ones that had been filled in. Almost all the packages were not stamped and instead of three signatures there were only one or two present. During the recount it turned out that one ballot voted for the ANC was in the package of the People’s Party ballots. According to the protocol the Prosperous Armenia received 210 ballots but there were only 208 in the sack. And the most interesting one was the RPA package. Here 7 invalid and 15 photocopied ballots were counted on behalf of the RPA. Another stack of the RPA was cancelled here. Perhaps they have stuffed so much in the box that it became impossible for them to match the ballot number with the signatures. In a word, that sack was full of confusion and almost no rule of recount was followed. Either the PEC management wasn’t aware of the order of the recount or the ones, who had opened the sack, created the confusion themselves. The second option is more possible. Here everything is not definite either. Was the sack confused by the violators or the sack was confused by the special bodies to reconcile with their assumption. Here again the second version is most probable and the reason of this assumption was brought up by the interpretation given by the SIS investigator Gorik Hovakimyan. The investigator said that on the election day at nearly 4 p.m. Yeghiazaryan was in charge of stamping the envelopes and supervising the ballot box. “16 citizens, by not being aware of their functions, according to which they should personally cast ballots into the box, gave their envelopes to Yeghiazaryan, who by benefiting fro this fact didn’t cast those into the box and instead kept those with him. Later Yeghiazaryan has moved those 16 envelopes from the precinct and met his friend Ohanyan. By knowing that Ohanyan is also an RPA member he told him that he was able to take out 16 envelopes from the precinct,” said Hovakimyan. According to him the purpose was to falsify elections on behalf of the RPA. “The investigation found out that Ohanyan took these 16 envelopes home, opened those up and saw that only one iss voted on behalf of the RPA. Ohanyan has liquidated the rest of the envelopes. And one ballot that was voted for the RPA was photocopied in 15 copies. He put those in the same envelopes, closed those, took to the precinct and cast into the box,” added Hovakimyan. It is true that at that time Hovakimyan was sitting at the box and was stamping ballots. However, not only during that period but also at 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. both journalists and Ayvazyan were carefully watching the ballot box and haven’t noticed anyone giving envelopes to Hovakimyan. Moreover, the people, who assaulted the journalists, arrived at the precinct around 4 p.m. During this period Yeghiazaryan was helping Vardan Hovhannisyan to rapidly stuff ballots. Therefore, we can confidently say that the arrestees gave untruthful testimonies and they had perhaps done it with somebody’s instruction. Let us add that yesterday during the recount the package of the RPA revealed the mentioned 15 photocopied ballots. In this case, it becomes understandable that the contents of the ballot box were preliminarily developed and the testimonies of the arrestees were reconciled with this. It is not excluded that the SIS also has its role in this affair. Later Sona Ayvazyan told that during the count of ballots in precinct #8/05 for a moment the members of the commission departed for supper. There were only the deputy-chair Khachatur Khachatryan and one more PEC member present. “They were whispering and were incessantly counting ballots, putting one stack on another. And very quickly a huge stack of ballots from the RPA was laid on the ballots of the Legal State and Dashnaktsutyun parties. And then the ballots of the Legal State became 80 from 21 and the ones of Dashnaktsutyun – from 18 to 63. It turns out that the ballot results of the two parties were changed. 25 from 235 ballots of the Prosperous Armenia were reduced. The RPA’s ballots from 478 became 559,” tells Ayvazyan. According to the protocol the Legal State had 80 ballots, which was at least surprising as this party only had 10-25 ballots. “For a moment ballots were coming out on behalf of all the parties. At that moment the proxy of the RPA made a remark to an IREX monitor by saying that he was interfering. The monitor left and after that the ballots (about 100) would go to the RPA and about 50 to the Prosperous Armenia. There was no exception at all. For a moment I approached to check the stamp on the ballots and they got very nervous. I asked them what they were doing. They told us that the numbers have changed. And all this was taking place in front of the charge de affairs of the US embassy Joseph Pennington. This was being done in such an evident and presumptuous manner that they didn’t even wish to conceal their falsifications,” says Ayvazyan and adds that she has told all this during her testimony to the SIS on June 2. At any rate a criminal case was launched for the violence and falsifications of precinct 8/05. The contents of the ballot box should still be thoroughly examined and it’s not excluded that the experts may reveal new violations. It is also not excluded that in this precinct the voting results may be annulled and new elections will be held.