Artur Sakunts: results of parliamentary election in Armenia cannot be considered fair

Elections of MPs of the Armenian Parliament held on May 6 show a continuing distrust of citizens in the electoral process, since the information about violations has not received adequate response even during the pre-election campaign. This was stated by Artur Sakunts, the head of the Vanadzdor Office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, at a press conference.

According to him, violations of the legislation, which took place during the election campaign, had a negative impact on the quality of parliamentary election in Armenia.

The Vanadzdor Office of Helsinki Civil Assembly carried out an observation mission during the election to the National Assembly of Armenia. Representatives of the organization worked at a number of electoral precincts in Yerevan and in Gyumri and Vanadzor, the second and the third largest cities of Armenia.

"On the day prior to the election and on the election day, voters were bribed on a mass scale. At the same time, the police reacted very passively to our signals about bribes: no preventive measures were taken to stop the process of bribing the votes," stated Artur Sakunts.

Among the most major violations Artur Sakunts mentioned application at some electoral precincts of such a mechanism of falsification like "carousel" and cases of attempts of double voting.

Mikael Danielyan, the head of the Helsinki Association, also pointed to the facts of violations during the elections. "The administrative resource is being used very actively, and there is evidence that this resource acts very cohesively with the criminal resource," said Mikael Danielyan on the day of voting.

Besides, on the day of voting, human rights activists drew attention to reports of distribution of pre-election bribes, gathering of voters at electoral precincts, delivering of voters by the public transport to the place of voting, and the use of the administrative resources. Election headquarters of a number of parties also claimed absence of special stamps in passports of voters, who had already voted.

In his turn, Tigran Mukuchyan, the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia, claimed that on the day of voting, the CEC received only one report on violations, and it was connected with the problem of absence of stamps in the passports of citizens, who had already voted.