The General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia: the mass media are full of reports about invented violations

The numerous inspections carried out to check the reports of violations at the elections to the Council of Elders of Erevan have shown that most of the information being spread by the mass media has been invented and aimed at imitating mass violations, said Sona Truzyan, Press Secretary of the General Prosecutor's Office in her interview with journalists. She pointed out that as of the end of day on May 31, the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has received no complaints in writing.

According to the "Caucasian Knot", the Armenian National Congress has repeatedly reported irregularities in the course of the elections. For example, the Armenian National Congress representatives reported that at Polling Station 9/1 of the Centre metropolitan community the bodyguards of Levon Sargsyan, member of parliament from the ruling Republican Party, attacked three female journalists representing the opposition press including the Aik, Zhamanak Erevan, and the Fourth Power newspapers (Tatev Mesropyan, Marine Haratyan, and Goar Veziryan).
 
Levon Zurabyan, Head of the Election Headquarters of the Armenian National Congress informed journalists of numerous violations recorded in the course of the elections including the throw-ins of ballot papers, the distribution of pre-elections bribes, the transportation of voters to polling stations, violence towards authorized representatives and journalists.

It should be noted that the General Procecutor's Office has rejected the ANC reports concerning the distribution of pre-election bribes having qualified the submitted data as incomplete.

Stephan Safaryan, Board Member of the Heritage opposition party commenting on the course of the elections, informed journalists of beatings, throw-ins of ballot papers, and bribes being reported every 10-15 minutes to the party headquarters.

In the meantime, Edward Sharmazanov, Press Secretary of the ruling Republican Party, gave a generally positive assessment of the election process. "Of course, we do not assert that there have been no violations at all, they have occurred, but they have not been massive," he said.

According to the "Caucasian Knot", the parties that have taken part in the elections of the Erevan Mayor using the proportional election lists included four parties forming the ruling coalition (comprised of Prosperous Armenia, ARFD, the Republican Party of Armenia, the Country of Law), and the oppositional Armenian National Congress including 18 parties, the Peoples Party and the Labour Socialist party.

After counting about 90% of the ballot papers the RPA is strongly ahead followed by a large margin by Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress.