Epress.am News from Armenia
At 2:10 pm on Jul. 11, just four hours before the deadline set for nominating members to Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC), Aida Muradyan and Roza Stepanyan refused the nomination. In a letter addressed to Human Rights Defender Karen Ombudsman, the two former candidates state that they are asking not to be put forth as CEC candidate members.
“Immediately after the results were announced, some news outlets mocked our young age and inexperience, began to speculate that we worked with you in the same legal office in the past, some even labelled us ‘future election falsifiers’.
“Realizing that in the case of expected political developments, CEC members will become more vulnerable and seeing how they relate to membership candidates not yet in office, we ask that you view this letter as a withdrawal application and not present us to the RA President for CEC membership,” reads the letter, in part.
The Ombudsman now has to nominate two new individuals for the Commission. The three CEC members will be presented to the Armenian president and the public by Jul. 12. The third member who was nominated by the Ombudsman is Artak Meliksetyan.