– Prior to our interview, you were speaking about the created frustration within the society. Why is it so?
– During elections we all know that the government will rig the votes because it’s difficult to maintain the government without those methods. And the reason for that is that the government doesn’t have sufficient legitimacy and the people don’t like that. It means that the government doesn’t rely on the ballots of the society. That is the reason why we always expect falsifications and in the meantime we hope that during each new election we hope that there will be fewer violations. However, we get disappointed every time. The situation has deteriorated since 2003. Let me mention that we started to observe the elections back then. Of course, despite the fact that international observers recorded certain progress they also spoke about discrepancies and stagnation. We don’t feel that we are going forward and that democracy develops here. The government doesn’t become any more democratic and the voice of the society is not taken into account. It means that people lose their hope every time. And people choose to leave the country because they don’t see the light in the tunnel. This is a quite frustrating and disappointing factor because the people, who wish to live in their countries shouldn’t leave the country because of the corrupt government. And it turns out that we cannot change the government through elections because now the elections are being rigged quite shamefully, presumptuously and with criminal methods.
– And what is the progress recorded during these elections?
– Now it is more about the opportunity to be provided by the media to all candidates to have equal access, or the free speech right, and it seemed there were no obstacles. These conditions are not enough and international observers have also said that unequal conditions have been created too. Unfortunately they did not say any names of parties that have committed electoral violations, but it is clear that it I mostly about the ruling party. Examples are the facts that teachers are used for campaign purposes and/or school buildings are use by parties. This means that there are different processes. We believe that stagnation is also about strengthening of such electoral institution, which every time is done with better manipulation techniques. Many people agree that this time the situation was quiet but it was an external game as the electoral lists were violated, electoral bribe was distributed, there were intimidations and pressure, administrative resources were used, etc. Through using all the mentioned techniques the authorities made sure that they would have the results they had been expecting. We were waiting for those results because the social surveys ordered by the Gallup International were not from a different room, which was in fact a real order. In fact the mentioned survey results and the results of elections were the same.
– Were the authorities doing this to prepare the society for such results?
– Yes I think they were preparing people for that because I don’t think voters would be so open to say names of opposition parties to the ones that were doing the survey. Also, many people would change their minds before the elections. The difference of the result reported by this survey is very small from the results of the elections. That is impossible in practice. People are afraid. They cannot be honest in their answer to questions concerning elections and openly say that they will vote for opposition powers. Such realistic picture could only be an order.
– On the election day the Iditord.org hot line map was very active, which was hacked on the same day. Do you think t was done on purpose?
– The web site was hacked at 3:30-7:30p.m., which was the busiest time of the election day. The calls were very intensive. I think the attack on the web site was done on purpose. Certainly we cannot say who did that. However we think that it was done by those powers, who are not interested in free and fair elections. The media and social networks were intensively working and voters we have today are not the same as before and the situation is not the same as in 2008 when all the sources of information were close after the state of emergency. Now the RPA is the only political power that does not want free and fair elections, which is seen in their every step and action. They even prove this statement by announcing that these elections were the best elections held in Armenia. In other words, they are blowing the minds of people. In other words, they think that the more they speak about it, the more people will believe in them. However, people do not believe in them. They are very disappointed and hopeless.
– But those people accepted electoral bribe too.
– I think that those who accepted electoral bribe are disappointed about this government too. They have got used to this situation so much that they don’t see any opportunity for change. They are taking care of their daily bread issues only and they do not even think about their tomorrow’s day. It is the tragedy of this country; people do not see their tomorrow’s day. On the one hand, we can accuse the voters who took electoral bribe, on the other hand they did it because they were forced to extreme poverty and even that small money means something for them. For example, if in villages voters refuse to take bribe, it will be a sign that they are going to vote for an opposition power. Not every voter can openly show their support to any opposition power.
– How many of the electoral violations reported in the Iditord have been subject to criminal case or investigation?
– We are not aware of investigations but in the web site there are options that people may select to show the future of the reported violations. To be honest we do not trust the law-enforcement institutions either because we have reasons for that. Our experiences shows that they are not doing their duties in a duly manner even despite their announcements and commitment to make coalitions with civic institutions. But the government is the same, their potential and lack of legitimacy are the same, electoral violations are the same, so is there anything we can trust? We cannot trust them unless we see real examples of struggle. I will believe their honesty when I see the RPA people who have given bribes, intimidated or used administrative resources are punished. Only in that case we can trust the government. One day before the election day, which was announced by all powers to be a day of silence, we received reports from Vanadzor that their office in that city was giving bribes to voters. By the way, voters from Vanadzor called the local police, who told them that they were looking into that. In the near future you will see what the punishments for the RPA’s and PA’s offices in that region will be and you will make an idea how the police works here. Of course I don’t say that only the RPA has committed violations, but compared to other parties their violations are tremendous. Accordingly, the punishments must be different as well. If there is no punishment, people will not trust anyone.
– How can their trust be recovered?
-Now I don’t imagine and I don’t see any remedies because we are dealing with criminals who are speaking different languages. My impression is that some of them are speaking in literal and others in criminal languages. It is about many years and hard work to restore people’s trust. As a result we will use time, energy and human resources. However, we may also try to work in that direction and slowly and step by step try to change things to have the feeling that we are the owners of this country. This is the right way and let me say that our enemy is undermining the statehood of our country and we must work together to eliminate this danger.
– As a citizen what do you feel after the elections?
– Depression… What else can I feel? We must continue struggling. There are two ways out – either to leave from the country or to stay and struggle…