Epress.am News from Armenia
“Let me call it stupid, but let them not get upset. Foolishly, they have decided that the signed electoral lists are secret. The voter, alive, comes and goes from the electoral district, they film it, they all see that he’s come. But that he’s signed, that he’s voted — that’s a secret. And by the way, let me say, according to the law, during counting [of votes], the applicant can become familiar with the signed lists, so what secrecy are we talking about?” said Armenian National Congress representative Felix Khachatryan, speaking to journalists about the elections and recalling that for many years they have been insisting that the electoral lists must be made public.
Republican Party of Armenia MP Vardan Ayvazyan (pictured), also present at today’s press conference, retorted, now who’s the idiot and exhorted “to pay attention to lexicon,” adding that a sheep is he who calls him a reject.
“I won’t allow anyone to insult me, to call my friends and the National Assembly rejects,” he said. “What, it seems to you you’re all tough guys now; every time, you shout at us — you think we’re afraid?”
In response, Khachatryan reminded his colleague that it was Khosrov Harutyunyan who called the National Assembly a “reject” and advised the ruling party MP to take his issue up with Harutyunyan and not him.
The opposition member also reminded Ayvazyan that he was once a member of the Pan-Armenian Movement (HHSh, one of the parties in the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc) and each time he changes his party, to which Ayvazyan replied:
“In 1999, Vardan Ayvazyan very clearly surpassed 19 people [in his electoral district to become MP] and no one till now has said don’t you dare open the dark pages of my past. And now I declare, I am searching for a man from your party to come in the same place and be nominated.”
Khachatryan, in turn, said that any man is ready to take that step if fair and “clean” elections are ensured.